Browser Company CEO says almost no one actually uses AI agents
Josh Miller, CEO of The Browser Company, set off a debate in the AI industry this week with a viral post on X: "Hot take ... isn't it kinda crazy that nobody is really using AI Agents." He told Wired's Maxwell Zeff in a Wednesday interview that he fired off the post half asleep during a family trip to Europe but stands by it, arguing that despite Silicon Valley's confidence, the general public has shown little interest in agentic products.
The adoption numbers back him up. Last month OpenAI said its Codex and ChatGPT Work agents have about 10 million weekly users combined. People close to Anthropic told the author that Claude Code and Cowork are seeing similar adoption. Both figures are tiny next to ChatGPT and Gemini, which each average around a billion monthly active users as chatbots. Miller says he has "not heard a single person outside of the tech community talk about an agent that they use."
Miller's central claim is that AI agents haven't failed to catch on so much as they were never a product to begin with. "No one wants AI agents, because AI agents aren't a thing," he said. "It is an invented frame made up by our industry to collectively refer to something." He argues companies should build products that make users feel calm and in flow, and hide the underlying agentic "harness" entirely, pointing to The Browser Company's own experience: the most popular feature ever in its AI-powered browser Dia is a personalized morning briefing, a homepage with a greeting, a to-do list pulled from the user's calendar and email, and small extras such as a piece of art. Miller says the feature only works because of an AI agent, but users never need to know that.
Miller has some standing to make this argument. His previous startup, Arc, built a browser with a devoted following and was bought by Atlassian last year for $610 million; his first company, Branch, was acquired by Facebook in 2014, and he also served as the White House's first director of product under President Obama. He says last summer, while The Browser Company was being courted by acquirers, he met with leaders across the top AI labs and found their thinking strikingly uniform: "I think every single lab but one mentioned the movie Her as the way they articulated their vision," he said, referencing the 2013 Spike Jonze film about a man who falls in love with an AI assistant. He credits the industry's overlapping obsessions for a narrow view of what agent products should look like.
The author notes today's agentic push centers on letting people build personal software, such as pitch decks or organized datasets, and that tools like ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork have proven genuinely useful to him personally. But he agrees the pool of people who want to build their own productivity tools is small, and that the industry needs bigger ideas to reach mainstream adoption. Miller's closing message, aimed at founders across the industry and not just OpenAI and Anthropic, is to stop assuming the current framing is the right one: "Let's not just accept this narrative of AI agents and actually question what are good products and tools that are joyful, useful, and approachable. Who gives a shit if it looks like an AI agent? No one uses AI agents."
Key facts
- Josh Miller, CEO of The Browser Company, says in a Wired interview that almost no one outside the tech industry uses AI agents, despite Silicon Valley's confidence in the category.
- OpenAI's Codex and ChatGPT Work have about 10 million combined weekly users, and Anthropic's Claude Code and Cowork see similar levels, versus roughly a billion monthly users each for chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini.
- Miller argues agents are a technology, not a product, and that companies should hide the underlying 'harness' behind features users actually want, citing Dia's personalized morning briefing as his proof point.
- He says nearly every AI lab leader he met last summer, while The Browser Company was being courted for acquisition, described their vision using the 2013 film Her.
- Miller previously built Arc, sold to Atlassian for $610 million, and Branch, sold to Facebook in 2014, and calls on founders industry-wide to design agent products around user needs rather than the 'AI agent' framing.
Why it matters
The piece captures a growing gap between Silicon Valley's narrative around AI agents and their real-world traction. OpenAI and Anthropic's flagship agent products draw roughly 10 million weekly users combined, a rounding error next to the roughly one billion monthly users each of ChatGPT and Gemini get as plain chatbots. That gap matters because AI labs have poured billions into models capable of far more than chat, and agents are supposed to be how that investment pays off. Miller's argument, that 'AI agent' is an industry-invented frame rather than something users want, reframes the problem as one of product design, not model capability.
Who it affects
AI labs such as OpenAI and Anthropic, whose agent products (ChatGPT Work, Codex, Claude Code, Cowork) are the ones cited as underused; consumer software builders trying to design agent-powered products; and everyday users who, per Miller, have no reason yet to seek an agent out. Miller speaks from his position as CEO of The Browser Company, maker of the AI-powered browser Dia, giving him a direct stake in how agentic features are packaged for consumers.
How to use it
The piece names no product to try or price to pay; its practical takeaway is a design principle Miller says already works for The Browser Company: bury agent infrastructure behind a feature people want on its own terms, such as Dia's personalized morning briefing (a greeting, a to-do list from calendar and email, and small extras), rather than marketing 'an AI agent' as the product itself.
How solid is it
The core adoption figures come from OpenAI's own public statement last month and from people described as close to Anthropic, not from Anthropic directly, so the Claude Code and Cowork numbers are secondhand. The rest of the piece is Miller's stated opinion and personal account, delivered in a Wired interview and expanded from his own viral X post; it is presented as commentary and industry debate, not as an investigative finding.
Risks and caveats
Miller has a direct commercial interest in this argument: he runs an AI-powered browser and stands to benefit from a narrative that favors hidden-agent product design. His claim that 'every single lab but one' invoked the film Her is not attributed to a named lab or source, and Anthropic's usage figures rest on unnamed people 'close to' the company rather than an official statement.
“No one wants AI agents, because AI agents aren't a thing. It is an invented frame made up by our industry to collectively refer to something”
— Josh Miller, CEO of The Browser Company