A startup called Polar, founded by Kevin Jiang, a former Perplexity engineer who worked on its Comet browser, has launched an AI-first browser aimed specifically at knowledge workers rather than everyday consumers. The launch comes as the AI browser sector has shifted focus away from consumer-facing chat-with-tabs features, following setbacks such as OpenAI's Atlas being discontinued and The Browser Company being sold to Atlassian, with attention now moving towards agents and workplace automation.

Polar allows users to schedule workflows, save prompts and assign tasks to AI agents based on their open browser tabs, targeting use cases such as sales, recruitment, marketing, research and business operations. The browser is free with limited daily AI credits, with paid subscriptions starting at $20 a month for higher usage; many current users reportedly use Polar mainly for task automation while keeping a different browser as their main one. The company has raised a $5.7 million seed round led by Madrona, with backing from figures including ex-GitHub chief executive Thomas Dohmke, Phia founder Phoebe Gates, and Modal chief executive Erik Bernhardsson.