With 'Copilot Mode' In Edge, Microsoft Officially Declares It An 'AI-Powered Browser'

Business is business, and being second place isn't the best thing in the world.

When compared to Google Chrome paired with Google Gemini, Microsoft Edge and Copilot often feel like the underdog duo, more complementary than dominant. Microsoft isn’t fond of that perception. That’s why it’s pushing to change the narrative—by baking Copilot directly into Edge, it aims to transform its browser into a fully agentic, AI-powered experience that doesn't just follow the competition, but sets its own course.

With what it calls the 'Copilot Mode,' Microsoft Edge is now officially an "AI-powered browser."

Ever since OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT onto the world in late 2022, the technology industry has been in a relentless race to define the next generation of computing. That release wasn’t just a viral moment—it was a trigger. In the months that followed, every major tech company scrambled to catch up or stay ahead.

Google fast-tracked its response with Bard (now Gemini). Other giants, as well as numerous startups also rushed into the generative AI space, trying to carve niches in search, productivity, and even hardware.

But amidst this flurry of activity, Microsoft moved faster and more decisively than anyone expected, cementing its early advantage through a deep and unprecedented partnership with OpenAI.

Instead of simply building its own model, Microsoft struck a multibillion-dollar investment deal with OpenAI, securing access to OpenAI's most powerful LLMs.

Microsoft began integrating OpenAI’s models across its entire suite of products, rolling out the Copilot branding inside Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, and eventually Windows itself. But while productivity tools gave the company a foothold in the enterprise AI narrative, it was the browser that remained one of the most critical battlefields.

With Copilot Mode, Microsoft Edge gains an edge with features and capabilities that Chrome still can’t match.

Copilot Mode in Microsoft Edge is introduced as an experimental new feature that completely reimagines what a browser can be.

Instead of making Edge a window to the internet, Microsoft is making it an intelligent collaborator that helps users navigate it.

Instead of having a mere chatbot bolted onto the side, Copilot Mode embeds itself deeply into Edge’s core experience, blending search, navigation, content summarization, planning, and decision-making into a seamless flow guided by natural language and contextual awareness.

With Copilot Mode activated, every new tab opens to a singular, streamlined input field.

Users can ask questions, run comparisons, plan trips, or summarize documents—using plain language.

But the magic happens under the hood. Copilot now has the ability to analyze and interact with all of open tabs simultaneously, offering cross-tab comparisons, contextual suggestions, and task-based actions. It doesn’t just wait for clicks—it understands users' intent and proactively guides their next step.

Read: Microsoft Introduces Its AI-Powered Copilot To General Availability: The '90s Are Back'

Planning a vacation? Copilot can review multiple booking sites at once, highlight the best options, and even take users directly to reservation pages without clicking through multiple links.

Comparing products? It can scan several retailer pages, break down differences, and recommend choices based on users' preferences.

Stuck on research? Copilot can read articles, pull insights, and help users structure their thoughts—all within the same browser window.

It even handles natural voice commands, letting users speak directly to the AI to perform tasks like “compare these three hotel options,” or “find the cheapest direct flight from Jakarta to Tokyo next month.” Users can also ask it to find a specific kind of website even if they don’t know the name—just describe what they need, and it will do its best to deliver the result.

This is all part of Microsoft’s vision of an “agentic” browser: one that doesn’t just react to users' actions but actively assists and simplifies them.

Rather than searching and sifting through tabs manually, users can let the AI agent orchestrate tasks, anticipate their needs, and reduce the friction between intention and result. It’s productivity, discovery, and assistance all rolled into one interface.

Importantly, Microsoft is embedding this transformation within the framework of privacy, security, and user control. Copilot Mode can be toggled on or off easily.

When active, it displays visual indicators that it’s running. Users maintain full control over what data is visible to the assistant, and Edge follows Microsoft’s trusted data protection standards. Settings allow users to customize the degree of personalization, ensuring transparency and responsible use of AI at every step.

Notably, all of this is available to users without requiring specialized hardware—no Copilot+ PC is needed.

The new Copilot Mode is rolling out to users on both Windows and macOS in regions where Copilot is already supported. Microsoft says it’s free for now, though it may eventually tie into the paid Copilot Pro subscription model once it exits the experimental phase.

Microsoft’s strategy with Edge is a bold one, and clearly aimed at shifting the browser market—still dominated by Google Chrome.

While Chrome maintains a massive lead in global market share, its AI features remain relatively modest, mostly limited to Gemini integrations and productivity add-ons. In contrast, Microsoft is turning Edge into the AI-native browser—a fully immersive agentic experience that tightly integrates OpenAI’s models at every level.

This move also places Microsoft in a strong position against newer AI-native browsers like Perplexity Comet, which recently launched its own AI-powered browsing interface, and rumors of an OpenAI browser in development add further urgency to the race.

Even The Browser Company has announced the retool of Arc to focus on the development of Dia that has more generative capabilities, signaling a shift in the entire category.

In many ways, this is a logical next step for Microsoft’s Copilot branding—extending from documents and OS-level interactions into the very tool most users rely on for day-to-day internet access.

The Edge browser becomes not just a window to the web but a guide through its complexity, built to work alongside the user, not just under them.

And this might just be the beginning.

With Microsoft’s deep AI roadmap and OpenAI’s ongoing model improvements, future iterations of Copilot Mode could go far beyond task assistance. Imagine a browser that automatically summarizes users' digital life, curates content tailored to their goals, or negotiates subscriptions and bookings in real time—all with their permission and oversight.

The AI war that started with large language models is no longer about who has the best chatbot.

It’s about who can best embed those capabilities into the tools people already use—and redefine how they work, learn, shop, and explore.

With Copilot Mode in Edge, Microsoft isn’t just reacting to the generative AI wave. It’s trying to steer it.