Microsoft adds Copilot Mode to Edge as AI browser race heats up

Microsoft is enhancing its Edge browser with Copilot Mode to strengthen its AI capabilities, as it struggles to compete with Chrome’s dominance and a wave of emerging AI-native browsers.

The Edge update is part of Microsoft’s broader Copilot Fall Release, which the company positioned as a shift toward “human-centered AI” with new features including a visual avatar called Mico, collaborative group features, and health and education capabilities across its Copilot platform.

The update introduced Copilot Actions, letting users ask the AI to perform multi-step tasks like unsubscribing from email lists or making restaurant reservations, Microsoft said in a statement. A feature called Journeys automatically groups past browsing sessions by topic. And Copilot can now access browsing history, with permission, to provide contextual recommendations.

Users will now be able to tell Copilot in Edge what they want it to do using Actions with Voice and perform simple tasks like opening a webpage or going straight to the information they’re looking for without having to scroll through long webpages.

You can also use chat to perform complex actions that give you back even more time. Trying to curb your shopping habit? Have Copilot go through your inbox and tell it to unsubscribe you from all those tempting shopping newsletters. Or Copilot can make that restaurant reservation, freeing you up to focus on planning the rest of your evening out. Soon, you will also be able to use your browser to talk to Copilot and complete these complex tasks.

Edge held 10.37% of the desktop browser market in September, down from 13.64% in May, while Chrome reached 73.81%, according to Statcounter. Microsoft first introduced Copilot Mode in Edge in July.

Mico, the visual AI assistant

Complementing Edge’s new AI feature is an all-new AI assistant from Microsoft — Mico, short for Microsoft Copilot. Mico is an optional visual character designed to make AI interactions feel more human, according to Microsoft. The animated avatar appears during voice conversations, reacting with expressions and color changes to reflect the tone of interactions.

Microsoft said the feature aims to create a “friendly and engaging experience” as users navigate with voice commands. However, the consumer-focused design raises questions about whether such personification of AI assistants will resonate in enterprise environments, where IT leaders often prefer functional interfaces over anthropomorphized technology. The avatar can be disabled, Microsoft said in the statement.

Free for now, critical details missing

The Edge Copilot Mode is currently free “for a limited time” on Windows and Mac, though Microsoft didn’t say when that ends or what it will cost afterward, according to the company’s announcement.

The new Actions and Journeys features are limited to US users in preview. Usage limits apply to some features, the statement added.

The company also hasn’t disclosed where browsing data is stored, how long it’s retained, whether it’s used for model training, or how enterprises can audit or control these features centrally. Microsoft said data is protected under its privacy statement and that visual cues show when Copilot is active.

Those gaps create deployment challenges for IT leaders. “The hesitation has little to do with performance. It’s about governance,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst and CEO at Greyhound Research. “Can companies trust a piece of software that now holds identity, history, and credentials inside a single intelligent layer?”

Gogia said enterprises must “extend zero-trust thinking to the browser itself. An agent that can execute actions is no longer a convenience feature; it is an actor within the enterprise system.” He recommended starting with narrow permissions — read-only access, strict domain lists, hard limits on stored context — then expanding only when controls prove reliable.

Late entry in a crowded market

Microsoft’s update comes as it plays catch-up in the AI browser space. OpenAI launched its Atlas browser recently with ChatGPT integration and autonomous task execution. Perplexity released Comet, and Opera is building Neon. The Browser Company is also developing Dia, another AI-native browser.

“Microsoft Edge is taking a fast-follower approach, leveraging its enterprise footprint to scale adoption,” said Prabhneet Kaur, practice director at Everest Group. “But much of its innovation feels additive rather than foundational, with AI features layered onto an existing browser. Browsers like Perplexity’s Comet, built with AI-native principles at their core, enable a more intuitive user experience.”

That criticism misses the strategic point, Gogia argued. “Microsoft arrived later, yet its strategy shows deliberate patience. By weaving identity management, device policy, and compliance tools into the same product, it has turned governance into its strongest feature.” Microsoft’s integration with existing enterprise identity systems means “an AI action can be logged, governed, and rolled back like any other workflow,” he said.

For browsers handling sensitive data, that architectural difference matters. “Browsers are already rich repositories of sensitive user data—history, credentials, cookies, behavioral patterns,” Kaur said. “Beyond enterprise-grade governance standards and restricted APIs, the idea of a guard agent, a proxy AI supervising layer, becomes especially critical.”

Microsoft hasn’t said whether it plans such safeguards. The company did highlight security features, including Scareware Blocker, which uses local AI to protect against full-screen scam takeovers, and password management tools that monitor credentials for breaches, according to its blog post.

Narrow window to reverse decline

Microsoft said it will share Edge for Business details “soon,” suggesting enterprise-specific controls may be coming. But until then, IT leaders evaluating Copilot Mode lack basic information about pricing beyond “free for a limited time,” face limited geographic availability for key features, have no clarity on data retention and storage policies, and haven’t been given details on audit capabilities or compliance with regulations like GDPR.

Chrome’s dominance on desktop—73.81% according to Statcounter—isn’t threatened by Edge’s AI additions. The broader shift toward agentic browsers is real, however. “Over the next year, these capabilities will stop being differentiators and become expectations,” Gogia said. “Within two years, AI-enabled will no longer be a selling point. It will be the baseline.”

For Microsoft, that means the window to turn Edge around is narrowing. For enterprises, it means governance frameworks for AI browsers need to be in place now, not later, regardless of which vendor ultimately wins the market.Microsoft adds Copilot Mode to Edge as AI browser race heats up – ComputerworldRead More