Opera launching a fully agentic-AI browser makes sense — it's a browser company, after all. Even Perplexity launching an AI browser, Comet, makes sense. Given that Perplexity is an AI search engine, and people already use it to look things up, I can see why making a full-fledged AI browser would be the next logical step.

But the last company I expected to see launch an AI browser was an antivirus company, and that too, Norton. Given that I've been lately going all-in on testing out every AI browser I can, including both Opera's Neon and Perplexity's Comet, there was no way I could resist checking out Norton's new AI browser, Neo. Fortunately, a colleague of mine ended up giving me an invite code, and I’ve spent the past few days exploring what Norton’s Neo has to offer.

What is Norton Neo?

What an antivirus company’s take on AI browsing looks like

In May 2024, Norton announced Neo, an AI-native web browser (meaning it was built with AI at its core) that's built with "capabilities that push the boundaries of what a browser can offer." It's designed to blend web browsing with real-time AI assistance, and Norton describes Neo as the next step in web browsing.

Similar to Perplexity Comet, Neo is a Chromium-based browser, meaning it's built on the same open-source foundation that powers Chrome and several other browsers. Unlike some of the AI browsers entering the market, Neo has been designed with privacy in mind and aims to combine innovation with Norton’s established, trusted standards. Norton claims that Neo collects "minimal, anonymized data," and browsing history isn't tracked. None of your private data is used to train any third-party models (or internal models).

It’s equipped with Norton’s WebShield, which means it scans for malware and phishing, and proactively blocks suspicious sites before they can do any harm. The browser also includes a built-in ad blocker. Neo is available for macOS and Windows, and you currently need to either join a waitlist or get an invite code from someone who already has access. The browser is also completely free to download and use. Norton explains that while it might introduce premium features down the line, the "core experience" will always remain free.

Neo's experience is centered around Magic Box

Where everything starts

The first thing I noticed as soon as I launched Neo was that the browser doesn’t have the traditional address bar you’d normally see at the top when you first open a new tab. Instead, when you open a tab, you're greeted with Neo's landing page, which includes a search area that resembles an AI chatbot interface. This is what Norton calls the Magic Box, and it combines both AI-powered search and traditional search into a single unified experience.

When I first talked about Perplexity's Comet, I mentioned that I wasn’t initially the biggest fan of how Perplexity-first it is. Basically, when you type something into Comet’s address bar, the browser defaults to Perplexity instead of Google. No matter what query you type, even something as simple as a unit conversion, it still routes your search through Perplexity’s AI rather than a standard search engine.

The reason I explained all of this is to highlight how Norton Neo takes a smarter approach. It can automatically figure out whether your query should be handled by its AI chat or a traditional search engine. Of course, you can also switch between the two manually if you prefer. For instance, I typed in a “How to” query, and the AI correctly determined that it should be handled by the chat interface rather than a regular web search. When I typed in “XDA,” though, it detected that I likely wanted to visit the website and redirected me straight to Google’s results instead of generating an AI response.

Given that it’s AI at the end of the day, its judgment isn’t always perfect. Nonetheless, it’s surprisingly accurate most of the time and does a decent job of understanding what kind of response you’re actually looking for.

Neo's Peek & Summarize features are great

Know what’s behind a link before you click

One of my favorite Neo features during testing are Peek and Summarize. Both are designed to help you decide whether a link is worth clicking on before you actually open it. The Peek feature displays the webpage in a small pop-up window, allowing you to preview its content without leaving your current tab.

Given how many results appear when you search up a simple query, I think this is a great way to quickly filter through links and find exactly what you’re looking for without wasting time opening multiple tabs. At the same time, the feature certainly isn’t the best for publishers who rely on clicks and page views for revenue, since users can get what they need without ever visiting the site itself.

The Summarize feature, on the other hand, is one pretty much every AI browser has. As its name suggests, it gives you a quick summary of a webpage, but what makes Neo’s version stand out is that you don’t even need to open the page first. You can simply hover over a link on the results page and click the Summarize icon to instantly get a concise overview of what the page contains. You can also ask any questions you may have about the content of the webpage (and Neo's AI suggests a few itself too).

Neo isn’t agentic, while Comet and Neon are

There’s likely a reason for that though

As I mentioned above, I’ve been going all-in on testing AI browsers lately, so I’m well aware of each browser’s capabilities and where they lag behind. The first time I really thought, “hey, maybe AI browsers are actually worth switching to,” was when I saw Opera Neon’s agentic AI capabilities. If you aren’t familiar with agentic AI, it basically refers to AI that can take initiative and perform tasks on your behalf without needing explicit step-by-step instructions.

For instance, I can ask the AI assistant to order me eggs online from a website, and it’ll add them to my cart and only ask for my input when it needs payment details. I’ve automated a lot of the repetitive tasks I perform daily with Comet’s AI assistant, and it’s saved me hours of manual work. Little things like scheduling calendar events, summarizing long press releases, and ordering my daily iced coffee now take seconds instead of minutes. Even if the AI agent takes longer than I would to perform the task, I can let it run in the background and direct my time and energy to another task, which honestly makes a huge difference during busy workdays.

Neo, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have agentic AI capabilities. I don’t see any mention of it in Norton’s blog post, and I tested it out firsthand with a couple of prompts. For instance, I asked it to order me some eggs, and Neo responded:

This might feel like a limitation at first, but there’s a likely reason behind it. Agentic AI browsers, while powerful, are notoriously difficult to secure. Prompt injections and other vulnerabilities can create massive security risks, not exactly something Norton would want in a browser, given that its core business is security and antivirus software. Releasing an agentic AI browser that could be exploited would directly threaten Norton’s reputation, which, of course, is the last thing the company would want.

So, while Neo not being agentic is a downside compared to Opera Neon or Comet, it’s probably a deliberate trade-off prioritizing security. Nonetheless, it does makes me wonder — why should I stick with Neo when better alternatives exist? Opera Neon is currently my go-to browser, and before its final build launched, Comet was my daily driver for weeks.

Neo shows promise, but it still has a way to go

The features I mentioned above are certainly not all that Neo has to offer. The browser also actively tracks your interests and past activity to create a personalized feed for you. Neo also includes what it calls Tabless Browsing, which is similar to Opera’s Tab Islands and automatically groups together similar tabs to keep your browser clutter-free.

While Neo is a lot better than I expected overall, I don’t think it quite lives up to its competition, and it still has a lot of catching up to do. If I hadn’t tried Comet and Opera Neon already, it probably wouldn’t have taken me long to make Neo my default browser.