AI continues to reinvent how consumers interact with technology — not just by answering questions, but now by acting on our behalf. Last time, I explored emerging costs, new AI-powered browsers, and the rising risks tied to autonomous technologies. Now, I’m tracking where the market is heading and what these shifts mean for consumer choice and safety.
This month’s roundup looks at agentic assistants embedded in browsers, new monetization strategies for AI, bots that shop for you, and a wave of wearables designed to carry AI off your screen and into your life. Let’s dive in.
Agentic
Google has released the first version of Agentic Chrome, joining Perplexity Comet and ChatGPT Atlas in the marketplace. A feature called Autobrowse, introduces a side panel housing a “…browsing assistant at your side, no matter what tab you’re in.” Autobrowse can handle complex multistep processes across multiple sites such as researching flight and hotel options for your travel plans. Right now these features are only available to subscribers of Google’s AI Pro and AI Ultra plans but expect these features to be released to all consumers at some future point.
A new AI assistant known by OpenClaw / Moltbot / Clawdbot has garnered a lot of press as it is able to take over all manner of computer tasks for users. It runs on a variety of hardware including the Mac Mini. “And if you give it permission, it can automate tasks, run commands and basically act like a digital personal assistant that never sleeps.” In these early days of Agents, many have raised security concerns at allowing an agent full access to your digital life.
Now your bots have their own social network called Moltbook The Guardian calls it “a bit like Reddit for artificial intelligence”, people are only allowed to observe the discussions as bots post and interact with each other. Many different topics are discussed and bots can upvote topics. Moltbook was made possible by the emergence of Moltbot – an automated open source agent.
Advertising To Pay For AI?
Data center processing costs for AI engines are high and with many consumers reluctant to pay for a subscription to these engines, more experiments in monetizing through ads are emerging.
Bot Shopping
As Shopify merchants prepare to enable sales through AI, merchants will be required to pay a 4% fee on checkouts within ChatGPT. For now chatbot checkouts through Google and Microsoft’s Copilot will not have additional fees for now, so price sensitive consumers should monitor whether Shopify merchants charge more within ChatGPT.
Tom’s Guide recently tested several AI tools to see which one was better at finding deals. For several tests the writer felt that ChatGPT had the edge and appreciated the photo listings, purchase links and tailored recommendations.
Wearables
Apple is famous for developing tech that consumers covet but the jury is still out on whether the AI pin it is developing will create huge consumer demand. Said to have two cameras, a microphone and a speaker, the pin could function to record interactions and to allow easy interaction with Apple’s upcoming Siri enhancements and not require a user to reach for their phone or watch to get the AI insights they are seeking.
OpenAI is also on track to release a wearable device in 2026 that will facilitate interaction with ChatGPT intelligence. Right now the form factor is unknown but it will likely be screenless and is touted as more “peaceful” than a smartphone.
Meta Platforms smart glasses are already seeing success and are ramping up production capacity to 20 million units or more by the end of 2026. The newest models can now display text that appears on the right hand lens and Meta predicts that in the near future that consumers will interact with their phones less as they shift to wearable interactions.
Since the Bee wearable was acquired by Amazon last year, they have announced a number of new features to its already strong recording features. A new actions feature connects to a user’s email and calendar to allow spoken commands to turn into actions. A “Daily Insights” feature is able to identify patterns over weeks or months and even recommend personalized life goals.
Until next time! We hope you’ll continue to follow us here for the latest AI marketplace news roundups, and get in touch if you want to explore these updates and build solutions together.
