Microsoft Edge introduces Copilot Mode with AI chat, Actions, and Journeys, released in October 2025 , and it arrived exactly two days after OpenAI launched their own browser. Coincidence? Yeah, right.
The Browser Wars Just Got Weird
So Microsoft decided that Edge needed to be smarter. Not just "AI-powered" in the vague way that every product is claiming these days, but actually integrated AI that changes how you interact with your browser. Copilot Mode is their attempt to make the browser itself feel like an AI-first experience.
The release came two days after OpenAI's Atlas browser launch , which... come on. That timing is not subtle. It's like Microsoft saw OpenAI's browser announcement and hit the panic button labeled "SHIP NOW."
What Copilot Mode Actually Does
From what I can tell, Copilot Mode is three things:
- AI Chat: Standard conversational AI, but contextually aware of what you're browsing
- Actions: Automated tasks the AI can perform on your behalf
- Journeys: Some kind of session management that helps you resume complex browsing tasks
The Actions feature is the interesting one. It's not just answering questions—it's actually doing things in your browser. Filling forms, comparing prices, aggregating information across tabs. That's getting into actual automation territory, not just glorified search.
The OpenAI Connection Makes This Awkward
Here's the thing that makes this weird: Microsoft is heavily invested in OpenAI. They're OpenAI's biggest partner and cloud provider. And yet they're also competing with OpenAI's browser.
It's like if your biggest investor also launched a competing product two days after you announced yours. The dynamics here are fascinating and probably tense behind the scenes. Someone I know who works adjacent to both companies said the vibe is "complicated."
Is This Actually Useful?
I've been testing Copilot Mode for about a week, and honestly? It's... fine. The chat integration is smooth, and having context about what you're looking at is genuinely useful. The Actions feature has potential but feels early—I can see it being powerful eventually, but right now it's more promising than transformative.
Journeys is the feature I can't quite figure out. It's supposed to help you pick up where you left off with complex research tasks, but it feels like a solution looking for a problem. Maybe I'm just not using it right.
The Bigger Picture
What's really happening here is a land grab. Microsoft wants Edge to be the default AI browser before anyone else locks in that position. Chrome dominates the browser market, but they've been slow on AI integration. Firefox is Firefox. Brave is too niche. Edge has a window (no pun intended) to differentiate on AI features.
The competition isn't just other browsers—it's chatbots and AI assistants that are becoming our primary interface for web information. If ChatGPT or Claude becomes how people access the web, browsers might become less relevant. Microsoft's trying to preempt that by making the browser itself AI-native.
Should You Switch to Edge?
Let's be real: probably not, unless you're already in the Microsoft ecosystem. Chrome works fine for most people, and switching browsers is a pain. But if you're a heavy Microsoft 365 user, or if you're curious about AI-integrated browsing, Copilot Mode is worth checking out.
It's not revolutionary, but it's competent. And in the race to make AI feel natural and integrated instead of bolted-on, competent execution matters more than flashy features.
My Honest Take
Copilot Mode feels like Microsoft's attempt to stay relevant in a world where the browser might not be the primary interface anymore. Is it going to dethrone Chrome? No. Will it stop OpenAI from eating Microsoft's lunch in the AI space? Also probably no.
But it's a solid feature set that makes Edge more interesting than it's been in years. And in a market where everyone's trying to figure out what AI integration should actually look like, experiments like this matter.
Even if the timing of the launch was hilariously obvious.