Google Chrome added three new artificial intelligence (AI) features earlier this year. These features were powered by Google's Gemini AI model and offered specific tools for customisation, tab organisation, and assistance in writing. These features are currently only available in the US. Now, Google has hinted at what some of the upcoming AI features might be. Based on an interview published by the tech giant, it appears that search and webpage reading might get AI powers soon.
On Wednesday, Google published an interview with Google Chrome's Director of Engineering Adriana Porter Felt, who described the process of coming up with helpful AI features that could make using Chrome an easier experience. Felt said, “We'd been thinking about how to bring AI technology to the browser to make the typical actions you do every day — using tabs, using Search, writing in forms, reading webpages — a little easier.' The director added that the entire Chrome team brainstormed ideas together.
Now, a closer inspection of the quote highlights that two areas, using Search and reading webpages, have not seen any new features so far. The last update added AI features for using tabs and writing in forms. It could be that the next features that the Chrome team builds could be based on these two areas of the browser. Search should be relatively easier considering Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) already exists and it could be integrated directly at the browser level.
But if the team does not want to take that route, another feature could be AI-powered filters that further organise the results based on the topic of the query. For example, a query for the best ice cream flavour could sort the results into groups of ice cream stores, YouTube videos, opinion-based blog posts, and miscellaneous.
Reading webpages is another area where the company might add a new feature. We have already seen AI-powered webpage summarisation tools within Microsoft's Copilot and Samsung's Galaxy AI. A similar feature could help users quickly understand what a long article on a website is all about.
However, it should be noted that these features are just speculations based on the comments by the Chrome Director of Engineering. The developers behind the Google browser might be working on an entirely different set of features. We will have to wait till Google officially announces them.
