With agentic browsers all the rage, it’s understandable that in these early days – it’s still confusing for the average consumer to unpack. in The Verge’s test with Opera’s Neon browser, the increased friction between tools makes such a product a burden for users. This isn’t to say that the technology is flawed, but early design and early days are its biggest issue.

As with other AI browsers, doing things with Do was also slower than doing it ourselves, though it hinted at what outsourcing the general mundanity of web surfing could look like. And using Do doesn’t mean you can completely check out just yet. Sometimes it encountered obstacles that only a human can handle. When it did, the Do tab at the top of the screen flashed in an easily missed shade of red letting us know we needed to step in and help the bot on its way.

The idea of handholding a tool through a process of thought or stream of tasks can still seem daunting. The consumer is often told that the browser can self-deal without much interaction from the user. We are not to this point as of yet, however, what better time than now to trial and error what this may look like in real-world practicality.

At times, using Neon felt a bit like working with a hapless intern we’d never asked for rather than a sophisticated, timesaving piece of technology. Often, one of its AI systems would ask for feedback, then just launch into a task without waiting for a response. Given its ability to use the browser, it’s all too easy to imagine where this proactivity could go very wrong, such as sending out a load of LinkedIn requests to people you had just wanted to anonymously stalk in a professional capacity.

In many cases, utilizing Generative AI in the workplace takes more time and tweaking than the user completing the task themselves. This is counterintuitive to the narrative that AI makes workflows and completing tasks easy and interoperable. What makes this even more an uphill sell for Opera, is that the Neon browsing product currently costs $20 per month – in its current shipping state.

Given many real world business applications, the jury is still out as to whether GenAI is becoming useful in the workplace, i.e. having to take more time to backtrack to check for accuracy, the proper workflow stream, and the correct results. Until that changes, as I’ve always believed, time and cost savings will not be realized for the everyday user and/or business productivity.

The Verge article concluded the following:

Neon feeling more like an AI browser we need to adapt to than a browser that’s smart enough to adapt to us.

Shoving tools into a browser creates overcomplication, slowdowns, and redundant features that can hinder use. It’s down to the fact that agentic browsing products still do not quite know what to do with themselves, but the fact they are present does not automatically mean cost and time savings are realized.

This is something important to watch as these products either evolve, or whether the browser goes away completely in favor of a new medium that directly puts user in touch with GenAI logic and reasoning.