{"id":1557423,"date":"2025-10-23T08:16:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T12:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/?p=1557423"},"modified":"2025-10-23T14:06:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:06:43","slug":"chatgpt-atlas-pushes-agentic-browsing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/chatgpt-atlas-pushes-agentic-browsing","title":{"rendered":"ChatGPT Atlas Pushes Agentic Browsing"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is official. The humble web browser is now an AI agent, too, and it will almost certainly impact ecommerce.<\/p>\n

When it announced a new browser, Atlas<\/a>, on October 21, OpenAI confirmed the latest trend in artificial intelligence. AI companies are building models directly into the primary internet experience. These AI browsers summarize pages, compare options, and complete tasks without leaving a tab. They produce, in a sense, a new kind of zero-click.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a>

AI browsers such as Atlas summarize pages, compare options, and complete tasks without leaving a tab.<\/p><\/div>\n

Agentic Browsing<\/h3>\n

ChatGPT Atlas is not the first. Perplexity’s Comet, The Browser Company’s Dia, and Sigma are part of the same emerging class of AI-assisted \u2014 or perhaps AI-first \u2014 browsers, designed to transform the internet from a landscape of links into a unified workspace.<\/p>\n

Incumbent browser makers are not to be left out. Google Chrome, Opera Neon, Brave, and Edge Copilot all offer various blends of AI and browsing.<\/p>\n

Together, these agentic browsers signal a redefinition of how people move from search to purchase. Instead of typing a query, clicking results, and hopping from one merchant to another, users could stay inside the viewport as their browser does the work.<\/p>\n

To be sure, this change is part of the emerging agentic commerce industry. OpenAI’s release makes these changes seem much more imminent.<\/p>\n

Then and Soon to Be<\/h3>\n

For nearly 30 years, the online buying journey<\/a> has followed the same path and pattern, a combination of impression, click, browse, product page, cart, checkout.<\/p>\n

Every stage of that journey generated a data signal and an opportunity for advertisers and marketers to target a keyword, insert a bid, or buy a sponsored listing. Search engine optimization, retargeting, and affiliate links fed the sequence.<\/p>\n

Some of these steps are fundamental \u2014 or at least we think they are. Other patterns will change.<\/p>\n

3 Models<\/h3>\n

A just-released McKinsey & Company report, “The agentic commerce opportunity<\/a>,” described three possible shopping flows.<\/p>\n