EP 614: 5 Business Use-Cases for Comet, Perplexity’s agentic browser
🎯 Summary
Podcast Episode Summary: EP 614: 5 Business Use-Cases for Comet, Perplexity’s agentic browser
This episode of the Everyday AI Show focuses on the emerging category of agentic AI browsers, specifically highlighting Perplexity’s Comment browser, and detailing five practical business use cases for this technology. The host argues that agentic browsers, rather than standalone chatbots, represent the next major wave in generative AI adoption, as they offer deeper integration and more powerful automation capabilities directly within the user’s primary digital workspace.
1. Focus Area
The discussion centers on Agentic AI Browsers, focusing on the technical architecture, competitive landscape (involving Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Perplexity), and practical business applications of Perplexity Comment.
2. Key Technical Insights
- Shift from Virtual Browsers to Local Execution: Unlike earlier computer-using agents (like OpenAI’s Operator) that relied on slow, error-prone virtual browsers and computer vision (screenshots and coordinates), Perplexity Comment utilizes a hybrid AI architecture. It runs simpler tasks locally on the user’s machine, leading to improved accuracy and speed.
- Chromium Foundation and Seamless Migration: Comment is built on Chromium, allowing it to instantly import user data (passwords, bookmarks) from Google Chrome and ensure compatibility with existing Chrome extensions, facilitating rapid adoption.
- Contextual Awareness via Connectors: The browser maintains context across all open tabs and leverages Perplexity’s connectors (e.g., for Gmail, Calendar, Google Drive) to execute complex, multi-step tasks autonomously across different platforms.
3. Business/Investment Angle
- Browser as the Next AI Battleground: Major tech players (Google, Microsoft, OpenAI) are prioritizing the browser as the next control point for user interaction, recognizing its superior potential for agentic automation compared to front-end chatbots.
- Perplexity’s Strategic Pivot: Perplexity has successfully pivoted from solely competing as an answer engine (a space increasingly dominated by Google and OpenAI’s deep research modes) toward becoming a leader in the agentic browser space, positioning itself as a potential iOS assistant alternative as well.
- ROI Through Autonomous Workflow: The primary business value lies in automating multi-step, cross-platform workflows (e.g., research, document creation, communication), which directly addresses the challenge many companies face in finding tangible ROI from generative AI investments.
4. Notable Companies/People
- Perplexity: The focus of the episode, specifically their new agentic browser, Comment.
- Google & Microsoft: Mentioned as key competitors who are also heavily investing in agentic capabilities within their browser ecosystems (Google’s Project Mariner, Microsoft Edge/Copilot).
- OpenAI: Reportedly developing its own agent AI browser, signaling industry consensus on this technology’s importance.
- Jordan Wilson (Host): Expresses strong bullishness on agentic browsers and demonstrates live use cases, noting his own prior skepticism about Perplexity as just an answer engine.
5. Future Implications
The conversation strongly suggests that the future of practical, high-leverage AI will be embedded within the browser. This shift moves AI from being a separate destination (a chatbot website) to an integrated, autonomous layer that manages and executes tasks across a user’s entire digital environment, effectively creating an “up-to-date second brain.”
6. Target Audience
This episode is highly valuable for AI/Tech Professionals, Business Leaders, and Product Managers who are looking beyond basic chatbot interactions to implement tangible, high-automation workflows using the latest generative AI tools to drive business efficiency and career advancement.
🏢 Companies Mentioned
💬 Key Insights
"I think this is going to—agentic AI in the browser is going to replace a lot of current AI workflows, a lot of these, you know, I laugh when people call things like this agents, right? These agentic workflows, even things in Zapier and Make. I think agentic AI browsers are going to replace so many of these other kind of quote unquote AI-powered workflows or agentic workflows because when it's happening locally, when it has access to all of your data that"
"And let me just say this: this is coming for you, whether you want it or not, right? Google's investing in this. OpenAI is going to be launching their agent AI browser in the coming weeks. Microsoft in their Edge browser, they're really expanding their Copilot vision. And guess what? Once OpenAI releases their version of this, it's going to because the IP Microsoft gets that as well. So Microsoft is going to be rolling this out. Google is going to be rolling it out."
"Y'all, the fact that this is happening right now, this is amazing. This is amazing, right? We kind of got a sniff of this with OpenAI Operator with Claude's computer-using agent, you know, a little bit with Project Mariner. But the fact that this runs locally in your browser, right? I'm running into so many errors when I'm using more of the computer-using agents, right? They're a little slower, a little less reliable just because the technology is not as solid as having this hybrid AI approach, having an agent AI browser."
"I'm having Perplexity go into this chat inside ChatGPT. And you'll see here, it pulled up the correct one. That's great. It was a deep research or no, it wasn't a deep research chat. What was this one? Yes, it was originally it was a deep research chat. I went through, I was having a lot of conversations with it. So I had Perplexity go look at this deep research chat, went through, pulled a lot of it, and then I'm telling it, hey, poke some holes, go find five more things that I should..."
"Look in my ChatGPT accounts for a certain chat. And I'm saying, carefully comb through that information and find five highlights that I should go more in depth on, then use Google Gemini to do more research on those five highlights."
"So the fact that now I can have a browser go personalize research for me, in this use case, it wasn't personalized per se, even though it was about my podcast, right? But I could go have it, you know, every single day research, I don't know, certain companies, competitors, et cetera, create a Google Doc that automatically gets saved in my account, and then through those connectors via those other AI chatbots, it's like literally having an up-to-date second brain that you can then access via any other kind of AI chatbot, right?"