Microsoft tonight unveiled its new AI-powered search capabilities in Bing but also quietly announced the existence of a new version of Edge, its web browser, that is chock-full of AI technologies. The new browser will let web surfers summarize search results with AI, talk with AI chatbots to get answers to their questions, and much more.

It's sleeker, it's lighter," said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft Corporate VP, while announcing a new version of the browser-one that now sported some aesthetic changes, like rounded corners.

Unlike the updates coming to Bing, an AI chatbot is available in a sidebar in Edge and includes two functionalities at launch: chat and compose.

These can be combined to help users do things like summarize text-heavy web content, run comparisons or even create content, in some cases.

Mehdi demonstrated a few proofs of concept of Edge's AI capabilities during the event. He went to the website of Gap.com to see quarterly reports and earnings. He clicks on a link to open the Q3 report, which loads a 15-page PDF.

"It's pretty long. I won't have time to read all that. What I'd love is a summary of the key points," he says.

Then, with a click, he opens up a chatbot from the top of the browser and asks it to give him the most important takeaways from the page. The AI returns a summary promptly, representing a "massive time savings," Mehdi notes.

Even more impressive, however, is what the AI does next. He has it compare the Gap Q3 financials to Lululemon's Q3 and make a table with its findings.

He uses another demo to show how the AI was helpful by itself, but also helpful in conjunction with the developer resources hosted on Stack Overflow. There he demonstrates how a developer researching tips on how to parse a JSON file finds code that they'd like to use. Problem is, the code he finds is written in Python and he wants it in Rust.

To help it with this, Mehdi calls attention to the text, which Edge instantly brings into its new sidebar, then asks the AI to write a piece of code in Rust. It does.

As a final example, Mehdi demonstrates how you might compose a LinkedIn post using the AI in the sidebar. (And you thought the corporate posts sounded like bots now!).

In this example, he lets the AI have a few prompts to get it moving. You could also ask to refine the post by tone, format, or length, and Edge will understand and update the draft accordingly.

The news about Edge was announced alongside the anticipated arrival of OpenAI’s technologies in the Bing search engine, following Microsoft’s $1 billion investment into OpenAI. At the event, Microsoft revealed how it integrated OpenAI’s GPT-4 model into its search engine to provide users with a ChatGPT-like experience. Except in Bing’s case, the AI isn’t limited only to data covering up to 2021 — it’s capable of handling queries related to more recent events.

Alongside these AI updates to Bing, the updated Edge browser will be available to preview today.

“AI will fundamentally change every software category, starting with the largest category of all – search,” said Satya Nadella, Microsoft Chairman and CEO, in an announcement. “Today, we’re launching Bing and Edge powered by AI copilot and chat, to help people get more from search and the web.”