Browser agent
Also known as: Agentic browser
An AI agent embedded in or replacing a shopper's web browser — operates the browser to research, evaluate, and complete purchases with minimal human intervention. Perplexity Comet is the leading example.
Browser agents represent the next stage of agentic commerce: an AI that actually operates the browser on the shopper's behalf. Perplexity's Comet is the leading commercial example — it navigates product pages, extracts specifications, compares options, and completes checkouts with minimal human involvement.
For merchants, browser agents raise the bar on structured product data and site performance. Browser agents read pages programmatically — they need machine-legible price, availability, specifications, shipping, returns. Sites with rich Product schema and semantic HTML win; sites with JavaScript-rendered or unstructured pages lose.
Browser agents also change the checkout dynamic. A well-implemented browser agent can complete a checkout form autonomously — including your shipping address, payment method, and confirmation click. This means agent-driven traffic converts at higher rates if your checkout is machine-parseable, and lower rates if it depends on human-in-the-loop interaction.
A first-party alternative is running your own on-site agent instead of waiting for a third-party browser agent to visit — an AI Shopping Assistant reads the same structured catalog data but sits inside your storefront, so you control the recommendation and the checkout end to end.
See also
Perplexity shopping
Perplexity's commerce surface + Instant Buy (PayPal partnership). High-intent shopper, higher AOV, deep review weighting.
Agentic checkout
The general pattern of completing a purchase inside an AI agent conversation, without the shopper leaving to a merchant's website. Includes ACP Instant Checkout, UCP Buy for Me, and equivalents.
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