Microsoft has launched an experimental mode that adds new artificial intelligence (AI) features to its Edge browser.
When users opt-in, the new Copilot Mode provides a page with a single input box that combines chat, search and web navigation, the company said in a Monday (July 28) blog post.
“Copilot Mode also sees the full picture across your open tabs, and you can even instruct it to handle some tasks,” Sean Lyndersay, partner general manager, Microsoft Edge, said in the post. “Turn your browser into a tool that helps you compare, decide and get things done with ease.”
With the user’s permission, Copilot Mode can see all open tabs to understand context and perform tasks like making comparisons, according to the post.
In the near future, users will also be able to permit it to access their history and credentials so it can do things like book reservations, the post said.
Copilot also appears in a dynamic pane while keeping the original page visible so users can ask it to perform tasks like converting recipe measurements or translating content, per the post.
Copilot Mode is available in all Copilot markets on Edge for Windows and Mac and is being offered for free for a limited time, per the post.
“This is just the beginning of our journey in introducing new AI innovation into your everyday browsing,” Lyndersay said in the post. “Copilot Mode is experimental and will evolve over time, and we’re just getting started.”
The launch of this feature for Microsoft’s browser came at a time when AI startups like Perplexity and OpenAI are both implicitly and explicitly challenging big tech’s long-standing dominance in web access.
These companies are preparing to replace traditional internet interfaces with the natural language-based capabilities of AI’s digital retrieval dashboards, PYMNTS reported in May.
The introduction of Copilot Mode also came about two months after the company said it was transforming its operating system, Windows, into an agentic AI platform.
This announcement marked one of the biggest shifts in the operating system’s history, PYMNTS reported in May.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, speaking at Microsoft Build 2025, said: “We’re just about getting into these middle innings of another platform shift, and these middle innings are where all things happen.”