Through the looking glass: Companies involved in generative AI, like Google and OpenAI, are envisioning a future where users delegate queries and tasks to chatbots or GenAI agents instead of manually clicking through websites and search engines. The head of Microsoft’s AI division thinks such applications can replace web browsers, and some predict they will eventually feel like operating systems.
In a lengthy interview with The Verge, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman describes a future where conversational generative AI interfaces might render conventional web browsers obsolete. The technology must overcome numerous obstacles before realizing this vision, but Suleyman expressed confidence in its evolution, though he tempered expectations for artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Suleyman described the current process of using a search engine as cumbersome, favoring the convenience of relaying questions to the Copilot app on his iPhone. He predicts that AI assistants with AI-generated interfaces could replace traditional search engines and browsers within three to five years.
If companies redesign web portals to accommodate AI agents, these agents coul
