“AI won’t exist as an app, or a button… it’ll be an entirely new environment built on top of a web browser.” That is the pitch from The Browser Company, the New York-based firm behind the Arc browser that is now developing an AI-first web interface called Dia, expected to debut early next year. Dia aims to leverage AI tools to simplify common Internet tasks. The repertoire is now a familiar one, with things like writing assists and inspirational prompts becoming AI givens in a competitive field where Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini are already established. The Browser Company is trying to distinguish Dia with a simple, user-friendly interface.

A video demo “shows Dia ‘performing actions on your behalf’ by typing commands into the address bar — such as asking it to find a specific document based on a description and then sending it to someone via your preferred email platform,” writes The Verge.

“A third, more ambitious prototype feature shows Dia automatically completing more complex tasks, such as adding a list of generic items like ‘a sleeping mask’ and ‘jelly beans’ to the user’s Amazon shopping cart or emailing individually tailored information like call times to a list of staff on a video recording session.”

The Browser Company, launched in 2019 by Josh Miller and Hursh Agrawal, has released the Arc browser — designed to present a “clutter-free” Internet environment — and in February 2024 debuted Arc Search.

Since its founding, the company has amassed “hundreds of thousands” of users for its web tools, according to a case study by Datadog. That may not sound like much, but it’s a big accomplishment for an independent firm trying to gain a foothold in a mountain of Big Tech.

The company’s Dia product holds the potential for “broader appeal,” according to TechCrunch, which dissects the video demo and highlights an example that “shows the browser looking at a Notion table filled with details of members for a video shoot,” adding that “Dia can email each participant separately.”

“So, what does this mean for Arc?,” asks The Verge, noting that “Miller has said the startup isn’t planning to kill its first browser,” which he says in the video users fear will be discarded. “In my bones, I feel like this is so obviously where the world’s going,” The Verge quotes him saying.