From search to travel agent: Opera’s agentic AI Browser shows the Web’s future

It’s coming up to 30 years since the debut of Norwegian company Opera Browser, and I recently attended an Opera Browser Day event in Lisbon with curiousity. 

While I’ll be keenly covering some of the rollouts across its variety of browsers — yep, they have more than one — over the coming months, the tech that got my most attention was Browser Operator. 

There’s no shortage of hype when it comes to agentic AI, but watching Opera’s Browser Operator perform searches and tasks on behalf of the user was really something else and offered a forecast of the future of web browsing. 

With Opera’s Browser Operator, you can rely on AI for more than just web searches. You can ask it to buy something on your behalf or share a web link with someone.

Powered by AI agents, the browser can interact directly with webpage elements and take control of the browsing experience, performing tasks for you in a more intuitive and hands-free way, such as booking trips and tickets, ordering shopping, and even planning a whole trip for you. 

Henrik Lexow, director of product marketing technologies, had Browser Operator help plan a cycling trip in Tuscany and also help figure out how to pack a bike for the trip. 

Lexow opened a few taps and then told the Browser Operator, “I’m stuck. I need help to plan a trip to bike around Europe.” 

Opera’s Browser Operator asked Lexow where he wanted to go and when, and what he wanted to do. In response to the request for a bike trip in Europe, the Operator searched the web, opened a booking site, chose the dates, and also showed YouTube videos on how to take a bike across Europe by plane. 

And then he took it up a notch: using the browser to order a bunch of yellow flowers from a local flower shop to the hotel room of one of the attending journalists. Operator searched, opened the website of a flower shop, found yellow flowers, and filled in all the information. 

But let’s face it, doing a live demo in front of a room full of journalists and content creators is no easy task. The Browser Operator stopped right before the very last click on the “checkout” button, and Lexow had to click it to finalise the order. 

We waited with bated breath to see if the journalist would receive the flowers the next day. And yes—he did. But under the pressure of a live audience, Lexow ended up placing the order more than once. The result? Not one, but three bouquets of yellow flowers delivered to the journalist’s hotel room. Even better for the recipient! 

This marked the first time that Opera’s Browser Operator ordered something for the general public in an exciting live demo – and perhaps the first-ever order of flowers with agent-based AI. 

The Opera Browser is not new to AI – being the first to offer a native browser AI, but it demonstrates the transition from the traditional web to Web 4.0 (like Chatgpt’s GPT-4.0), “where humans and machines coexist together.”

According to Joanna Czajka, product director of Opera PC Browsers, the company is “basically reinventing our thinking about browsing.” It shifts the role of the browser from a display engine to an application that is agentic and performs tasks for its users.

The company says users can oversee the Opera Browser Operator process, as they remain in full control and can also take over or cancel a task at any moment.  

But besides creating cool tech, Opera Browser highlights the role European companies play in promoting privacy, digital sovereignty, and user choice. 

Opera browser is owned by Opera Limited, a publicly traded company headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker OPRA. However, the majority ownership and control of Opera Limited belongs to the Chinese technology company Kunlun Tech Co., Ltd.

However, Opera Browser and its contemporaries like Qwant (France), Ecosia (Germany), Lilo (Spain/France), not only ensure strict adherence to EU data protection laws like the GDPR, blocking trackers by default and avoiding surveillance-based monetisation models, but reflect Europe’s push for greater technological independence and ethical digital standards. This further supports the EU’s broader goals of regulating Big Tech, fostering competition, and empowering citizens with more transparent, secure online tools.