Can OpenAI's Atlas get people to care about browsers again?

"Not content with having hundreds of millions of users peppering ChatGPT with queries and conversations every day, OpenAI wants to further embed itself in our digital lives. This week the company released Atlas, an AI-laden web browser it hopes will challenge incumbents and be adopted at scale. Atlas is one of a raft of AI-powered browsers that have been unleashed on the market in recent months."

"OpenAI stands a better chance than most of dislodging Google Chrome, which is used by around 70 percent of all web users, according to Statcounter. But it's still hard to see how Atlas will eat into Chrome's supremacy. "It's hard to get people to change browsers," says Johnny Ryan, a senior fellow at the Open Markets Institute who has investigated how users choose different digital services."

"Of course, OpenAI has good reason to feel confident. ChatGPT became a success within a matter of weeks thanks to its novel interactivity.OpenAI followed it up earlier this year with its controversial Sora 2 video generator, which gained a million users in five days. Butfor the average person, web browsers are decidedly less sexy. Unless you're extremely techy, the reality is that a web browser is a utilitarian piece of software,"

OpenAI released Atlas, an AI-powered web browser intended to compete with established browsers. Multiple AI-first browsers have appeared recently, including Perplexity's Comet and Opera's Neon. Chrome holds roughly 70 percent of global browser usage, creating a substantial barrier to displacement. OpenAI's prior rapid successes with ChatGPT and Sora 2 show strong user acquisition potential. Most consumers, however, treat browsers as practical tools prioritizing navigation, stability and service quality. Longstanding user habits and historical market dominance make large-scale switching difficult even for feature-rich newcomers aiming to win market share.

Read at Fast Company