Microsoft made a small text-based change to the title of its mobile Edge browser recently, changing it from Microsoft Edge to “Microsoft Edge: AI browser.
However, the larger implications buttress the company’s further divulgence into the artificial intelligence sector, while also attempting to change user interactions with internet browsers going forward.
Edge’s new name change also comes with a slight marketing boost that promotes its support of OpenAI’s GPT-4 models as well as DALL-E 3 image generation, in the description of the app in the Google Play and Apple App stores.
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At the start of last year, Microsoft shot gunned its approach to pre-generative AI by labeling almost all their products with it and came out of the stocks with Bing as its AI ambassador. However, after some consideration, Microsoft slowly began to consolidate the branding around its new pre-generative AI tool supported by its multi-billion-dollar partner OpenAI and eschewed the Bing branding for something a bit simpler and less affiliated with the butt of search engine comparison jokes.
Now simply called Microsoft Copilot, the company variant of GPT-4 is used across select productivity applications and platforms.
As more consumers get ingratiated with the applications of AI, it seems Microsoft would like to use the moniker to help lift its Edge browser from a stagnant sub 1% mobile usage. Adding AI as a tag for the Edge browser could entice people to see Microsoft’s alternative as something more than an also ran internet browser for mobile.
However, the move could also backfire for the company if it does little to put to its newly touted pre-generative features at front and center of the user experience on day-one of download and install. As it stands, the Edge browser still operates like a regular mobile browser.
Microsoft will need to lead with Copilot as its new paradigm to internet searching as well as put, what is currently relegated to plugins, as native first party experiences such as contextual shopping tips, recipe and notes collections, and more.
While it’s easy to change a few lines of text for the app, Microsoft still has its work cut out for itself convincing users that Edge is better than native Safari or Chrome on mobile.
