AI Web Browsers Dia & Comet vs. ChatGPT Agent: Vying For A Greater Share of Search

New web browsers such as Dia and Comet built specifically to utilize the strengths of AI while navigating our online world are entering the search fray in full force, and a slew of AI search add-ons for most of the popular existing browsers have also recently been launched or updated.

However OpenAI’s recent release of its new ChatGPT Agent — its first full agentic offering — is likely poised to have a significant impact on reshaping how we optimize and get work done.

How are a new AI version of the browser wars and rising adoption of agentic AI tools altering the way we search — and how are successful SEO professionals adapting from traditional Google and Bing-based optimization to the new multimodal large language model (LLM) SEO landscape?

Let’s jump right in and take a look, with an eye towards the transformation taking place in AI web browsers, how we search, and how successful brands are optimizing the touch-points for being found both in search engines and AI tools.

DIA & COMET PROMISE ALL-AI-ALL-THE-TIME BROWSING

Dia is a new browser that was recently launched in beta form by the Browser Company, a five year old firm that previously developed the freeware Arc browser. Unlike Arc, Dia is built entirely around an AI-driven web navigation experience.

Early growth forecasts for the global AI browser market expect a $7.9 billion market size by 2026, growing to $76.8 billion by 2034, according to recently published data by Market.us.

“From the beginning, our goal at the Browser Company has been to build a true successor to the web browser, a new kind of computer for the internet era,” Josh Miller, CEO and co-founder at the Browser Company noted earlier this year.

Dia joins Comet — an AI browser recently released by popular AI search engine firm Perplexity — and Opera’s Neon as three of the initial entrants looking to tap into the power of AI as a reimagining of the browsing process itself.

“The browser is bigger than chat,” Aravind Srinivas, CEO and co-founder at Perplexity, recently noted. “It’s a more sticky product, and it’s the only way to build agents. It’s the only way to build end-to-end workflows. It’s the only way to build true personalization, memory, and context,” Srinivas added.

AI browsers — and to a lesser extent AI browser extensions — find, filter, interpret, and summarize information as we move through the web, showing overviews featuring what each browsers’ specific AI technology considers to be the key points from any given page or site.

Will the AI search engines that power new browsers such as Dia and Comet be any more forthcoming with specific details about the signals they use to surface relevant content than traditional search engine firms — notorious for issuing rather vague generalities instead of precise algorithm operation details —  have been?

This remains to be seen, although some in the SEO business are somewhat jaded and don’t hold out much hope that the curtains will finally be lifted on the inner workings of how the likes of ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity choose which content to show.

Google recently completed the two-week rollout of its latest core search algorithm update which began at the end of June, 2025, without publishing any specific details about how the update will affect the search experience, other than the usual reference to general improvements, as Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable covered.

Another new entrant to the AI browser field could have a substantial impact on the emerging market, as OpenAI has begun work on its own AI browser, Aura, according to recent reports.

“The browser wars are back — but this time, AI is the weapon,” Swagata Ashwani, principle data scientist at Boomi recently suggested. “A new wave of browsers is emerging — not just faster, but smarter. They don’t just open tabs — they do the task for you,” Ashwani added.

AI browsers are poised to gain adoption as more people discover them, spurred on by more widespread media exposure such as The New York Times’ recent “Is A.I. the Future of Web Browsing?” piece.

WHO SHAPES & FILTERS OUR SEARCH RESULTS?

Has AI search simply replaced one set of vague search criteria used by traditional search engines with its own equally vague collection of relevance signals?

In the AI search shakeup we’ve undergone, some SEO professionals see more direct correlations between certain content ingredients and the likelihood to be returned as relevant AI search results than has been the case with Google’s legacy signals of relevance.

This has been a time for reexamining just what constitutes trusted and helpful information, a pursuit that may end up advancing both traditional and AI search and SEO on a global scale, as our expert-in-residence Sebastien Edgar recently explored in “SEO in the LLM Era: Optimizing for AI & Scaling Global SEO.”

Others see any specific repeatable signals that surface content in AI search as being only temporarily exposed — as anything that can be used to potentially game the system likely will be, especially during this AI search shakeup.

Yet others predict a neverending battle between the positive AI technology that finds, filters, interprets, and summarizes what we see on our various device screens and the opposing forces of generally negative technology built to interfere with search, alter filtering, purposely misinterpret, and output summaries heavily influenced by vested interests. This dichotomy itself is nothing new, having played out yearly since the SEO industry began, however AI web browsers and agents add a new twist to an old and ongoing conflict.

AI has put into movement a digital perpetual motion machine of sorts, creating output that in some cases not only tries to hide the fact that it has been partially or fully built by AI, but is also put to use in trying to detect AI-built content

It’s a natural evolution of the kind of creation and detection that’s been going on for decades, with hackers and security experts racing for the upper hand with virus and anti-virus code.

INFORMATION TOUCH-POINTS IN THE AGE OF MULTIMODAL AI

Which organizations control the various touch-points encountered along the way from when a search is conducted to when results are finally presented, in either a traditional or AI browser?

For better or worse, AI search has introduced many more touch-points from far more players than the pre-AI days when Google and Bing controlled the vast majority of such digital interactions. It hearkens back to the early days of the web and the vast array of search engine firms before Google’s meteoric rise.

Part of the bright promise of AI search has been its potential to “eliminate the middleman” of search and give researchers a more direct pipeline to the information we’re seeking. Whether this has actually happened — and what impact a new breed of AI web browsers will have — is another matter.

Questions such as, “How can negative technologies be minimized in search?”, “Which forms of content are the least susceptible to interference?”, and “Who has access to and who owns data pathways?” aren’t as straightforward as one might hope, however at the very least the shakeups we’re seeing in SEO and with AI web browsers have allowed for constructive new dialogue to take place in an industry that has for some grown monotonous.

NEW SEO FRONTIERS & AI BROWSER RISKS: IS GOOGLE REALLY UNDER THREAT?

Dia, Comet, and AI search browser extensions seem like an inevitable step on the path to the next frontier of search and SEO — one in which Google will certainly play a significant role, even if litigation someday leads to Chrome being spun off from Google-parent Alphabet.

Should Google manage to retain Chrome, some see the pace at which Google has brought AI to its flagship browser as too little, too late.

“Google revolutionized browsing by making Chrome fast and simple,” Jon Goodey, founder of Indexify, recently observed. “Now, by clinging to that simplicity while competitors add intelligence, they might be setting themselves up to be disrupted by the very kind of innovation they once championed,” Goodey added.

“As AI agents learn to operate within (and across) websites, the browser becomes a canvas for intelligence, not just content,” Juliet Falk of Softgen AI recently noted. “We’re witnessing the dawn of the agentic web, and your browser may soon be your most powerful teammate,” Falk added.

More people are using AI, and its strengths in various areas continues to grow, such as in programming, where a hopped-up version of OpenAI’s simulated reasoning model related to the firm’s o3 model recently finished second in the world coding championship, and for math, where Google’s Gemini Deep Think AI recently won the gold medal at the International Math Olympiad.

Despite the often-flashy advances in AI outside Google, the search giant still maintains its mammoth share of the overall search pie, accounting for some 90 percent of the global search engine market as of June 2025.

Google has steadily continued to improve its own array of AI offerings — from adding an AI Mode option powered by its latest Gemini 2.5 Pro model front-and-center on the world’s most-used webpage, to strengthening its MedGemma AI model in the health sector.

Gauging how AI measures up has become its own niche technology branch, with efforts such as the model evaluation and threat research (METR) metric and our own Previsible AI SEO Benchmark offering glimpses into how AI is improving at various tasks. Other efforts focus on harnessing AI to produce novel new form of research.

CHATGPT AGENT: BEYOND THE BROWSER

Against this backdrop, OpenAI recently launched ChatGPT Agent, its first offering that integrates with the full range of computing tasks users typically perform, from browsing to productivity tools and more.

ChatGPT Agent uses what it calls “secure browser takeover mode” to interface with browsers in a manner that keeps passwords and similar information private. It also offers deeper terminal network and other types of system integration using ChatGPT connectors, which OpenAI cautions ChatGPT Agent users to be aware of, noting that “its overall risk profile is higher.”

ChatGPT Agent performed especially well when tasked with solving expert-level questions on a wide range of subjects within the scope of Humanity’s Last Exam, OpenAI noted.

The new ChatGPT Agent has combined a number of previously separate offerings from OpenAI, bringing full agentic capabilities to one of the most-used AI tools for the first time.

SEO professionals already using ChatGPT and other AI tools directly may see little advantage in using the new AI browsers such as Dia and Comet, now that ChatGPT Agent and other agentic tools are capable of browser control.

Others, who haven’t yet committed to a particular AI tool, may prefer such dedicated AI browsers, however no matter which interface a user prefers, there’s no doubt that AI integration is reaching higher adoption levels every day.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SEO?

Savvy SEO professionals understand the transitory and unsettled period we’re in, and have a number of resources for finding what works and what doesn’t when it comes to delivering successful brand SEO.

AI search advances are weeding out inauthentic SEO efforts, rightfully placing a greater emphasis on authentic brand-building SEO efforts, as our CEO Jordan Koene recently explored in a Voices of Search interview entitled “The Consolidation of Search” with SEO pioneer Jim Boykin, founder and CEO of Internet Marketing Ninjas, a Previsible company.

However we access and interact with AI tools, it’s important to keep in mind that we ultimately possess innate creative abilities for crafting truly original work.

The more we lean into this key human differentiator — not relying solely on AI’s ability to output something that may be unique but far from original or truly creative — the better off brands, SEO professionals, and the world of search will be.

Below are a few general guidelines relating to AI web browsers and agentic AI tools, to help us put SEO in context during this unique period in search history:

10 GUIDELINES FOR SEO SUCCESS IN THE ERA OF AI WEB BROWSERS

• Be Original Not Just Unique
  
  → When it comes to content creation, offer genuine creativity, not just a unique but bland rehashing
  
• AI Browsers Like Dia and Comet Represent a New Paradigm in Search
  
  → Tools such as Dia and Comet are reimagining the browsing experience, offering AI-driven web navigation and summarization rather than traditional link-based search results.
  
• AI Browser Extensions and Agents Are Gaining Momentum
  
  → AI browser extensions and new agent-based tools, like ChatGPT Agent, are being integrated into popular browsers, providing summarized overviews, contextual awareness, and other advanced functionality.
  
• Traditional SEO Signals Are Being Challenged by AI Ranking Criteria
  
  → SEO professionals are navigating a landscape where AI-driven content selection and presentation now rely on different and evolving signals compared to traditional platforms like Google or Bing.
  
• Transparency Remains a Major Concern with AI Search Tools
  
  → Just like Google has long been criticized for vague algorithm transparency, AI tools aren’t necessarily more forthcoming about the factors that drive search rankings, leaving savvy SEO practitioners to continually experiment.
  
• Search Is Becoming More Personalized, Contextual, and Multimodal
  
  → AI search experiences are more tailored, using user behavior, history, and preferences to surface results — meaning SEO must account for greater contextual relevance, not only legacy keywords.
  
• SEO Professionals Must Adapt to an Expanding Universe of AI Touch-Points
  
  → The journey from user query to content delivery now passes through multiple new AI-powered layers, including summarizers, agents, and browsers — each with their own filtering logic.
  
• There’s a Growing Risk of ‘Negative Technology’ Interfering with Search
  
  → The arms race between AI-generated content and AI content detectors mirrors the hacker/antivirus dynamic, potentially raising questions about manipulation, misinformation, and authenticity in AI-powered search.
  
• ChatGPT Agent May Outpace AI Browsers for Some Users
  
  → OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent offers deep integration into computing tasks, including secure browsing, system-level actions, and productivity tools — potentially reducing the need for separate AI browsers like Dia.
  
• Google’s Dominance May Be Eroded — But Far From Eliminated
  
  → Despite innovation in AI search, Google remains the primary search force, though it faces increasing pressure from emerging tools and potential regulatory scrutiny that could reshape both the browser and search landscape.
  
• SEO Professionals Are Entering a Transitional and Uncertain Era
  
  → The shift toward agentic and AI-powered search tools demands agility, creative experimentation, and an open and forward-looking mindset from SEO professionals, who must now optimize not just for traditional search engines, but for intelligent AI systems interpreting content in entirely new ways.

BROWSERS OR AGENTS: STAYING FLEXIBLE FOR THE FUTURE OF SEO

Staying flexible is key in today’s world of SEO, and we hope that you’ve found this look at some of the latest SEO changes relating to AI web browsers and agentic AI tools helpful, and that the insights we’ve shared will help with your own SEO efforts.

Crafting a successful SEO and AI strategy today requires ongoing dedication, significant time investment, and sound strategy, which is why more brands than ever are turning to dedicated SEO agencies with a deep understanding of AI such as Previsible and Internet Marketing Ninjas, a Previsible company. If you’re looking for proven SEO and AI search help from some of the industry’s top experts, please drop us a line today and let’s talk.