Why Browser Agents Are the New App Store

When Apple launched the iOS App Store in 2008, it might have not felt world-changing to early users. At first, there were only 500 apps, many of which were simple flashlights, calculators, or games (lets not forget that viral fake beer-drinking app too). Even a year or two later, some of the most popular apps were basic utilities. It took time for developers to explore the platform’s potential and create the transformative experiences — like Uber, Instagram, and WhatsApp — that made mobile indispensable.

Browser agents represent a similar opportunity: with LLMs, developers can now automate work on any website. LLMs can generate code on-the-fly, vision-based web agents can interact with the internet like you do, and computer using agents can take the reigns on clicking through things. They can browse, click, fill forms, scrape data, and interact with websites just like a human would — but they run 24/7 in the cloud, with infinite scale, and can be orchestrated by code. The possibilities of what you can build with them are so broad that it’s beginning to feel like the early days of the App Store, and the most creative developers will define what’s possible.

Here’s how it’s different (hmm.. and better?) than the iOS app store:

• Task-oriented, not app-focused: AI browser agents allow users to state a goal in plain language, and the agent orchestrates the entire workflow across multiple websites. For example, instead of opening separate apps for travel booking, weather, and a calendar, a user can simply instruct an agent to "plan a trip to Paris next month." The agent would then find flights and hotels, check the weather, and block out the time in their calendar.
• Contextual awareness: Browser agents operate with knowledge of the user's accounts, browsing history, and preferences, which allows for a more personalized and efficient experience. They can log into websites, fill out forms, and apply user-specific data to complete complex tasks.
• Lower friction for developers: For developers, this model offers a way to distribute services without the overhead of maintaining a native application for every platform (iOS, Android, etc.). Their service is simply one of many websites the agent can interact with, lowering the barrier to entry and creating a more open ecosystem.
• Eliminates silos: The current app store model creates "walled gardens" where apps don't communicate easily with one another. Browser agents, in contrast, are built to connect these services. A user could ask an agent to research a product on Amazon and then compare it to prices on a different e-commerce site, a process that would be cumbersome with individual apps

What You Can Build with Browser Agents

Let’s get concrete. What does this unlock? Here are some of the most exciting use cases we at Kernel are seeing:

1. Automated Research & Data Gathering

Instead of manually visiting dozens of sites, a browser agent can:

• Search for new job postings across multiple platforms
• Collect product pricing across e-commerce sites
• Track competitor website changes in real-time

For example: we have a user at Kernel that runs over 10 agents in parallel focused on scraping jobs at companies within a specific industry: they’ve run over 1k runs in the past 2 months and it saves them a few hours every week.

2. Lead Generation & Enrichment

Sales and marketing teams can use browser agents to:

• Identify new prospects by crawling directories or event attendee lists
• Enrich CRM data by pulling public info from websites or LinkedIn
• Monitor competitors’ customer lists (e.g. logos on their homepage)

One great example of this is OrangeSlice: they use ai agents to autonomously find potential new customers for your product or service (and have launched over 10k agents so far)

3. Workflow Automation

Think of browser agents as Zapier for the open web:

• Log in to portals to download invoices automatically
• Submit forms or upload data on a recurring basis
• Synchronize data between apps that don’t have integrations

These are the boring, repetitive tasks that every company wishes they could just “set and forget.” We have a Kernel user focused on this purely with filing and submitting government forms

4. QA & Testing

Software teams can use browser agents to:

• Run end-to-end tests in production-like environments
• Simulate real user behavior across geographies
• Validate that critical workflows (signup, checkout) are working 24/7

A good example of this use case is Momentic AI - it’s like having an ai employee that tests QA for you

5. AI-Powered Experiences

Perhaps the most exciting frontier: pairing LLMs with browser agents.

• Agents can read a page, summarize it, then take action based on the content
• They can compare multiple sources, reason about them, and produce insights
• They can act like an AI-powered intern, carrying out multi-step tasks across the web

These make for some of the coolest demos that go viral on twitter: watching a browser agent go through a task or workflow and get back to you with results.

Browser Agents as a Distribution Platform

Okay lets get real.. where is this “new app store?” It seems like there are a lot of ai companies right now but I don’t see one centralized marketplace with thousands of new browser agents to go through… tell me where it is!!

Okay so at the moment the answer is that these browser agents are.. kind of everywhere. There is no unified app store (at the moment), there is no searchable database, there is no single repository of all of the agents that are running right now.

But that’s part of what makes this new movement special: no gatekeeper, no walled garden, and healthy competition from multiple groups to facilitate the building of more and more agents. With that being said, over time we expect to see libraries, templates, and even marketplaces emerge for browser agents — just like app stores had categories, reviews, and ratings. Imagine browsing a directory of “prebuilt agents” that can do things like book your flights, reconcile your expenses, or monitor your competitors.

The ordering of things is different in this “app store.” At the moment, the technology is here first and the app stores and marketplaces will come later, whereas with the iphone launch the marketplace came first and the technology for each app improved over time. Yes OpenAi has a GPT storefront and other ai marketplaces exist. But we believe the true ecosystem still hasn’t fully emerged, yet. (and ..um.. no, we’re not building that just to clarify)

The Next App Store Moment

The first iPhone apps were simple: flashlights, to-do lists, tip calculators. Then came Uber, Instagram, and TikTok — apps that redefined entire industries.

We’re at the same stage for browser agents. Right now, we’re seeing early adopters build data pipelines, automations, and QA suites. But the next generation of companies will build entire products powered by browser agents — and they’ll feel as inevitable as ride-sharing does today.

If you’re a developer, founder, or product thinker, this is your chance to get in early. The platform shift is here — and the most interesting apps haven’t been built yet.

The next wave of great software might not come from an app store — it might come from a browser agent you write this weekend.

The question is: what will you build?