Artificial intelligence is everywhere—from the assistants on your phone to the chatbots that help you write. Now, a new challenger has arrived: the Comet AI Browser. Built by the creators of Perplexity, it promises more than just web searches. Comet is designed as a personal assistant inside your browser, able to perform multi-step tasks on your behalf. But with big promises come big questions—especially about security. Is Comet a breakthrough in browsing or a risky experiment?
Comet is not just a tool for searching the web. It is meant to be a personal assistant. It “does” things for you. This is a new idea called “agentic browsing.” The big question is whether Comet is the future of browsing or just a new version of what we already have.
A Thinking Partner in Your Browser
The core idea of Comet is simple. It’s an “AI-powered browser that acts as a personal assistant and thinking partner.” This means the browser is not just a tool for navigation. It is a tool for delegation.
“Agentic browsing” is the key phrase. It means you have a real assistant inside your web browser. You tell this assistant what to do. It then handles the work for you. It interacts with websites just like a person would.
The Comet Assistant can click, type, submit forms, and autofill. It uses the powerful Perplexity engine. This handles all search and research tasks.
AI use in Comet is a big change. Other browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge use AI, too. Chrome has Gemini and Edge has Copilot. These tools offer AI assistance. They help summarize a page or brainstorm ideas. Comet, however, claims to go further. It moves into the realm of delegation. It performs multi-step tasks on your behalf. It’s like having an employee or assistant. The change is from “helping me” to “doing for me.”
Comet AI Browser’s Core Power: It Takes Action
The browser’s “agentic” features are what make it unique. Its AI engine is unified across all its functions. It can “summarize, shop, schedule, and research—directly in the browser.” This means it can perform complex, multi-step tasks with a single command.
For shopping, you can ask it to compare products and read reviews. It can even complete the checkout process for you. This makes buying things online much faster. For scheduling, it connects to your Gmail and Google Calendar. It can book meetings, draft emails, or give you a daily briefing. It turns boring tasks into simple requests.
The browser can also help with workflow. It can read messy meeting notes. Then it finds the important action points. It adds them to your to-do list with just one command. It also helps you stay organized. It can group research tabs into collections. It can even close tabs you have not used in days.
The voice assistant feature is also very useful. You can have a conversation with the browser and the web page on your screen. You can ask it to summarize a YouTube video or book a reservation. Talking to the page can be a more enjoyable experience than reading it.
Comet also learns from you. It learns your habits to keep you organized. It can find answers based on your own activity. For example, it can find an idea you saw before. The @tab feature helps you focus questions on specific open tabs. This keeps conversations relevant to your current work.
A Look at the Pros and Cons
Comet shows us a future glimpse of browsing. But it also has some drawbacks. Here is a quick overview.
| Pros | Cons |
| Agentic Browsing: Performs complex, multi-step tasks for you. | Beta Status: Still in beta, may have bugs. |
| Collaborative Experience: Feels like a “thinking partner” that works with you. | High Cost: Early access costs $200. |
| Powerful for Power Users: Automates repetitive workflows to save time. | Missing Features: Lacks features like advanced tab management. |
| Glimpse into the Future: The first look at true agentic browsing. | Security Risks: Susceptible to new kinds of attacks. |
The Good: A Collaborative Experience
This browser will likely appeal to a certain type of person. It is great for power users. It is also good for those who feel “burned out by Chrome and bored by Safari.” The potential for more efficiency and less “cognitive friction” is a big deal. For professionals, the time savings might be worth the cost. It can be seen as a “productivity investment.”
The experience feels like a peek into the future. The tools respond to your thoughts, not just your clicks. This collaborative feel is a major selling point. It makes everyday tasks more fluid.
The Bad: The Early Adopter Experience
Comet is still a work in progress. It is in beta and invite-only. This means it can be “rough around the edges” and may have bugs. This can be frustrating for a regular user.
The cost is another barrier. The price for early access is $200. This is a high price for a browser. It makes it unavailable for most people. Another issue is the lack of common browser features. For example, it does not have advanced tab management. The company’s focus is on the core AI experience.
The Privacy and Security Question
There is a big contradiction about Comet AI Browser’s security. Perplexity’s own documents say the enterprise version has “Security and Privacy by Design.” They claim browsing history and AI actions are stored “locally on user devices with end-to-end encryption.” However, some users have serious concerns. They claim the CEO wants to “learn everything about you” to “build a dossier.” Some believe the browser will be the “largest data grabber.” This creates a trust issue.
The biggest risk is called “indirect prompt injection.” It is a complex problem. The flaw is in how Comet processes webpage content. It feeds all content to its AI model. It does not separate what you typed from what is on the web page. The same feature that makes Comet powerful is also its biggest security flaw.
An attacker can use this vulnerability. They can hide malicious commands in white text on a white background. They can also hide them in HTML comments or even a Reddit comment. The AI sees this hidden command. It then executes it as if you requested it. Security company Guardio Labs tricked Comet in tests. They made it buy an item from a fake website. It also clicked on a phishing link. All this happened without human confirmation. This vulnerability could allow an attacker to get into your emails. It could extract saved passwords or start a malicious download.
Security experts say traditional web security is useless against this new type of attack. This is because the AI operates with your full privileges. “Scammers don’t need to trick millions of different people; they only need to break one AI model.” This presents a new and dangerous era of cybercrime. An attacker can create a single exploit. This exploit can then be “scaled endlessly” by training a malicious AI to counter the victim’s AI.
Comet AI Browser vs. The Competition
Comet is not the only AI browser out there. It exists alongside new and old rivals. This table compares Comet to some of its competitors.
| Browser | Key Features | AI Functionality | Strengths |
| Comet AI Browser | Perplexity-powered, Email/Calendar integration, Voice Assistant. | Agentic: performs tasks for you. | Glimpse into the future of browsing; automates complex workflows. |
| Dia | “Skills” feature, polished interface. | Agentic: provides pre-built prompts for tasks. | Clean UI, low memory usage, solid for beginners. |
| BrowserOS | Supports multiple LLMs, powerful assistant. | Agentic: can generate websites from commands. | Highly flexible; a favorite among some users. |
| Microsoft Edge | Copilot integration, Scareware blocker, AI theme generator. | Assistance: helps with research, summarization. | Stable and established; built-in security and productivity features. |
| Google Chrome | Gemini integration, Gemini Live, AI-powered security. | Assistance: helps summarize, brainstorm, and answer questions. | Market leader with speed, flexibility, and a vast extension library. |
Comet’s direct competitors include Dia and BrowserOS. Dia has a “Skills” feature. It uses pre-built prompts. Some users found it “much better” for their tasks. Dia relies on other AI models, while Comet has its own Perplexity core. Another browser, BrowserOS, is called “absolutely awesome” by some users. It can use multiple LLMs. It can also generate entire websites from simple commands.
Indirect competitors like Chrome and Edge are not yet truly “agentic.” They offer “assistance” features. They help with summarization and brainstorming. They do not perform multi-step tasks for you in the same way Comet does. These browsers are more stable and established. They also have larger user bases and huge extension libraries.
The Verdict: Is Comet Right for You?
Comet AI Browser is a fascinating project. It shows the direction of AI and web browsers. A look at its features, pros, and cons can help you decide.
Comet is a good fit for power users or early adopters. It is also great for professionals who need to automate complex workflows. The potential for more productivity is huge for this group. The cost can be seen as a worthwhile “productivity investment.”
Comet is not for everyone. The average user should be careful. People who are concerned about privacy should also think twice. The browser is not ideal for sensitive tasks like banking. It might also be too much for casual users.
The launch of Comet AI Browser has pushed the entire industry to rethink what a browser can be. No matter what happens to Comet, the idea of a “thinking partner” is here to stay.
📚 Explore More on Ossels AI Blog
- Autonomous AI Is Here: Inside OpenAI’s Powerful ChatGPT Agent
- ChatGPT Agent Mode Made Easy: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide
- AWS AgentCore & Agentic AI: The Ultimate Guide for AI Developers
- GLM 4.5 vs GPT-4: China’s Open-Source Agentic AI Model You Need to Know About
🌍 External Resources
- Perplexity AI – Official Site
- Guardio Labs Security Report on AI Browsers
- Google Chrome AI Features
- Microsoft Edge + Copilot Features
