Microsoft Edge transforms into an AI browser with new Copilot Mode

Microsoft is starting to test a new experimental Copilot Mode inside its Edge browser today. The AI-powered mode allows Copilot to search across all your open tabs and handle tasks like booking a restaurant, and it brings the Copilot chatbot to your new tab page.

Copilot Mode is somewhere between the limited Gemini integration that Google is testing in Chrome and the AI-powered overhaul that Comet offers with its AI browser. You can let Copilot see all your open tabs so you can ask it to compare a bunch of hotels you might be looking at or help summarize the best purchase from multiple product tabs.

Copilot will even appear in the address bar. | Image: Microsoft" data-portal-copyright="Image: Microsoft">

Copilot in Edge also supports voice navigation to locate information on a website or to open tabs with products to compare. Microsoft is also planning to let Copilot, with your permission, access your Edge browser history and credentials so the chatbot can book reservations on your behalf.

These new Copilot features in Edge build on the existing integration of Microsoft’s AI assistant in its browser and the work the company has been doing with Copilot Vision. “Copilot will soon be able to guide you in your tasks and organize your browsing — past and present — into helpful, topic-based journeys,” says Sean Lyndersay, vice president of product for Microsoft Edge.

Copilot Mode can search across all your open tabs. | Image: Microsoft" data-portal-copyright="Image: Microsoft">

For those not interested in this AI-powered mode in Edge, Microsoft says it will be optional and you’ll be able to disable it. “With Copilot Mode, you can also choose to turn the experience on and off as you wish through your Edge settings,“ Lyndersay says. ”If you choose not to turn on Copilot Mode, you can continue to browse on Edge as usual.“

Microsoft is calling Copilot Mode an “experimental” feature that will evolve over time. It’s also “free for a limited time,” with usage limits on certain Copilot features. This suggests that Microsoft will eventually tie this new mode to some kind of subscription.