Agentic browsing
Agentic browsing is when an AI agent opens web pages, clicks and fills in forms for a person, instead of the person doing it.
Agentic browsing is when an AI agent uses the web for someone. It opens pages, scrolls, clicks links, fills in forms and sometimes pays, while the person waits for the result or watches.
Some assistants do this in a browser of their own on a server. Others are built into the browser on your computer. Either way, the visitor on your site is software acting for a person.
How it's different from a bot reading your page
A search bot reads a page and leaves. An agent that's browsing tries to get something done on your site: compare plans, check stock, book a table, add to basket. It sees your pages much like a person does, but it reads them literally and has no patience for confusion.
For example, someone tells an agent: "Book a table for four at Harrow & Pine's café on Saturday at one." The agent finds the café's site, opens the booking form, picks the date and time, and fills in the details. If the time picker only works with a mouse drag, or the form hides an error message, the agent gets stuck and tries a different café.
What it means for your site
Your pages now have two kinds of visitor to serve. The usual advice for people still applies, and on top of it:
- Keep key facts in plain text on the page
- Label buttons and form fields clearly
- Make errors and confirmations visible in the page
- Don't block the AI bots you want to let in
What we can't see
Agents working privately for one person don't publish what they did. No tracking tool can see those sessions, AnswerOrbit included. What you can see is the bots that reach your site. The Bot visits tab in Website shows which AI bots visited and which requests failed, once you connect your server logs.