Let’s start with something we all do every day, usually without thinking: click. Click to search. Click to compare. Click to buy, book, scroll, close, and open again. Most of us tap through the internet on autopilot. Click to again. It’s muscle memory at this point. Every click feeds a giant machine that spouts ads, data tracking, SEO hacks, attention farms. That’s not just how we use the web. That is the web. Or was. The average internet user makes hundreds of clicks a day, and behind every one of them, there’s an economy of ads, algorithms, data, and dollars. This click-driven system isn’t just how we navigate the internet. It is the internet. Or at least, it has been. But now, a new generation of AI-powered web browsers wants to kill the click entirely and with it, the very foundation of how we explore, understand, and profit from the web. And they’re not just nudging at the edges. They’re coming straight for the juggernaut: Google.
The age of the click is about to get ghosted. A new wave of AI-powered browsers is here to break the link economy—and they’re gunning for Google’s crown. Hard.
Last week, Silicon Valley’s current golden child, Perplexity AI, launched Comet: a browser that doesn’t want you to browse at all. No tabs. No link-chasing. No “Top 10 Best Anything” rabbit holes. Just vibes and answers. You ask it something, anything, and Comet responds like the smartest friend you know. Not 10 links. One tight, conversational, well-sourced take. It’s like Google Search and ChatGPT had a brainy, overachieving child who also happens to do your homework and book your flights. They’re calling it your “second brain,” which sounds a little Black Mirror but also kinda genius. It reads 30-page PDFs like they’re tweets. It finds the best insurance plan. It buys you tickets. All without dumping you in 37 tabs of mayhem.
This isn’t just hype. Perplexity is seeing wild growth: 780 million queries in May 2025, with over 20 per cent month-over-month traffic growth, according to co-founder Aravind Srinivas. That’s not “fun toy for nerds” territory. That’s “disrupt Google” energy. What’s changing? People are over the old-school search flow. You know the drill: type » scroll » click » back » repeat. We don’t want breadcrumbs. We want conclusions. Synthesised. Streamlined. Spoken back in our language.
Browsing Is Dead. Chatting Is In. Let’s say you’re hunting for the best running shoes under `8,000 that won’t die in monsoon season. Classic Google would serve you a buffet of blogs, reviews, and 200 pop-up ads. Comet? You just ask, and it answers—with the good stuff distilled. No fluff. No traps. Need it added to your Amazon wishlist? Just say so. Want Indian alternatives? Ask. Comet keeps the convo going. It remembers. No clicks required. And it’s not just search. Comet rides along on every site you visit. Confused by legalese? Need a TL;DR of that research paper? Want to translate a page from Japanese fashion blog into your kind of English? Comet’s got it. The more you use it, the more it vibes with how you think. It’s not about finding information anymore. It’s about making it make sense.
Comet isn’t a one-off. OpenAI—aka ChatGPT’s parent—is prepping its own AI browser, reportedly dropping any day now. It’s expected to fuse ChatGPT with its lowkey-powerful agent, Operator. This thing scrolls, clicks, fills forms, makes purchases—all on its own. Basically: an AI that uses the web for you. No hand-holding. No micromanaging. Just task > outcome. Operator was released in preview in early 2025 and already shows signs of being that friend who just gets it done.
And the browser wars are heating up. Microsoft is jamming AI into Edge. Google is frantically layering AI into Chrome. But the game has changed. AI browsers don’t organise the internet. They replace it.
Google is still King, but the throne’s wobbling. Let’s talk scale. Google Chrome is still massive: three billion users, two-thirds of the browser market. Safari’s in second place with 16 per cent. Chrome’s power comes from more than dominance. It’s about data, control, and billions in ad revenue. Your clicks fund Google’s empire. Chrome funnels you into Search, which feeds ads, which pays Google. About 75 per cent of Alphabet’s revenue comes from that ad pipeline. Break the click? You break the bank. And that’s the threat.
Google knows this. But knowing isn’t fixing. To be fair, Google saw this coming. It rolled out the Search Generative Experience (SGE)—a kind of AI-lite overlay for search. But it’s… weird. Critics call it glitchy. Publishers say it steals clicks. Some results straight-up hallucinate. Not cute. Meanwhile, Chrome is having an identity crisis. It’s built to keep you clicking. But if AI answers kill the need to visit a dozen sites, that whole economic engine falls apart. Adding AI to Chrome won’t cut it. Google has to rethink what a browser is. And what it’s for. As Srinivas put it: “The internet has become humanity’s extended mind. But the way we access it is still primitive.” Translation: Comet isn’t just smarter. It’s native to how you think.
Comet and Operator aren’t doing parlour tricks. These AI browsers are fusing natural language processing, web scraping, logic, reasoning, and action execution—basically stringing together a mini-army of bots that understand what you want, and go do it. They’re not just organising info. They’re thinking through problems. In real-time. For you. That’s wild. And maybe a little terrifying.
If AI browsers win, it’s not just Google that takes the hit. It’s the entire internet model.
Publishers: Fewer clicks = fewer views = vanishing ad dollars.
Advertisers: No clicks = no impressions = no metrics = chaos.
Devs & SaaS: Who needs your pretty UI if an AI just books the ticket?
Users: Fewer tabs, more headspace. But also, total dependency on your AI’s judgment.
Comet does include ad-blocking and privacy controls, btw. A flex on Chrome, which—let’s be honest—is basically a corporate surveillance tool with tabs.
Can we trust these bots is the big Q. If AI browsers pick what you see, who decides what they don’t show? What happens when your source of truth is a black box? These systems still make mistakes. They reflect bias. They sometimes hallucinate. And they concentrate power in a few companies like OpenAI, Perplexity, maybe Microsoft or Anthropic. That’s not ideal. Also, what if your AI just has bad taste? Or worse, a subtle agenda?
It’s NOT just tech. It’s a whole internet shake-up that is picking up speed. The economic fallout? Potentially massive. Content creators, SEO specialists, bloggers, marketers—millions of people depend on clicks for paychecks. AI browsers don’t click. They synthesise. And the plot thickens. If regulators force Google to spin off Chrome (anti-trust flags are waving), there are whispers that OpenAI or even Yahoo (yep, they’re still around) might try to snap it up. Imagine Yahoo staging a comeback. That’s how weird 2025 is.
Where’s this going? It’s already here. AI browsers work. They’re being adopted. And companies are racing to make them stick. Perplexity says they’ll keep rolling out features, refining experiences, and making Comet the smartest, safest AI sidekick you can trust. Google, meanwhile, is juggling ad revenue, user trust, and its identity crisis. We’re entering a post-click internet. It’ll be faster. Smarter. Weirder. So yeah. The web as we know it; link-filled, tab-obsessed, SEO-bloated is
about to look ancient.
Welcome to the era of AI browsers. Less click. More think.