* [Blog](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog) * [SASE](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/) * [AI Security](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/ai-security/) * AI and the New Browser Se... # AI and the New Browser Security Landscape [](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Forigin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fblog%2Fsase%2Fai-and-the-new-browser-security-landscape%2F) [](https://twitter.com/share?text=AI+and+the+New+Browser+Security+Landscape&url=https%3A%2F%2Forigin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fblog%2Fsase%2Fai-and-the-new-browser-security-landscape%2F) [](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Forigin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com%2Fblog%2Fsase%2Fai-and-the-new-browser-security-landscape%2F&title=AI+and+the+New+Browser+Security+Landscape&summary=&source=) [](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com//www.reddit.com/submit?url=https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/ai-and-the-new-browser-security-landscape/&ts=markdown) \[\](mailto:?subject=AI and the New Browser Security Landscape) Link copied By [Yonatan Gotlib](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/author/yonatan-gotlib/?ts=markdown "Posts by Yonatan Gotlib") Feb 18, 2026 7 minutes [AI Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/ai-security/?ts=markdown) [Product Features](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/category/product-features/?ts=markdown) [GenAI](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/genai/?ts=markdown) [Prisma AIRS](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/prisma-airs/?ts=markdown) [Prisma Browser](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/prisma-browser/?ts=markdown) [Prisma Browser Extension](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/tag/prisma-browser-extension/?ts=markdown) As 2026 unfolds, the browser is no longer just a window to the web; it is the operating system of the modern enterprise. This shift is already well underway. The rise of AI, agentic software and agentic browsers that don't just chat but act has fundamentally reshaped both productivity and risk. What once felt experimental is now embedded in everyday work, accelerating innovation while expanding the attack surface. Let's break down four critical trends defining the browser in 2026, the emerging threats leveraging AI and how we must evolve to secure the future of work. 1. Agentic Browser Trends: The Productivity Vs. Risk Paradox \============================================================ One of the most talked-about trends entering 2026 is the agentic browser. Emerging in late 2025, the term quickly generated significant hype by moving beyond simple chatbots to AI agents capable of executing tasks autonomously in the browser, including booking travel, filing expenses or researching competitors. As the initial excitement settles, enterprises are now grappling with what it truly takes to adopt agentic technology safely and at scale. [Agentic technologies](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-agentic-ai-security) face a classic chicken-and-egg dilemma. Recent [threat disclosures](https://neuraltrust.ai/blog/openai-atlas-omnibox-prompt-injection)regarding agentic browsers have created a security barrier that stalls enterprise adoption. This lack of adoption leaves the promised productivity gains unproven, hindering the development of meaningful use cases. In one example, researchers found that the [ChatGPT Atlas bypassed standard encryption practices](https://cybersecuritynews.com/chatgpt-atlas-exposes-users/), exposing authentication data and enabling unauthorized access to user accounts, demonstrating how agentic browsers can introduce a massive, often invisible attack surface: * \*\*Unchecked autonomy:\*\*AI agents can take actions, change data and access enterprise applications by inheriting a user's browser session---creating the risk of unintended, abused or rogue activity. * \*\*No inline controls:\*\*Most agentic solutions lack built-in security enforcement, making it difficult to monitor prompts and responses, restrict AI usage or prevent sensitive data loss. * **Expanding attack surface:** Prompt manipulation and weakened web isolation enable attackers to hijack browser-based agents, turning the browser into a remote control for compromise. * \*\*No clear accountability:\*\*Enterprises lack visibility into whether actions were taken by a human or an AI agent, undermining auditability, governance and trust. * **Shadow AI risk:** In the absence of enterprise-grade controls, users turn to untrusted browser extensions that mimic agentic behavior, expanding exposure beyond IT oversight. * \*\*Vendor lock-in:\*\*Agentic experiences are tightly coupled to specific browser and AI provider combinations, limiting choice and forcing enterprises into closed ecosystems. The conclusion is clear: organizations should not adopt consumer agentic browsers. These tools dramatically expand the attack surface and operate beyond the visibility and control of traditional security stacks. ## Mitigate Agentic Threat Exposure with Prisma Browser® Extension If users experiment with or access agentic browsers despite this policy, the[Prisma Browser Extension](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/the-new-cybersecurity-duo-prisma-access-browser-and-its-extension/) becomes essential. Prisma Browser Extension allows security teams to discover and govern AI browsers in use, restore in-browser visibility into user navigation, uploads, copy/paste actions and extensions, and block risky workflows before they escalate. With real-time phishing protection, AI-powered malware inspection, extension governance and rich forensic logging, the extension reduces exposure while giving SOC teams the in-browser insight they lack today. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements on how Prisma Browser will go further to secure agentic actions themselves with native, policy-enforced protections designed for this new class of risk. 2. Fighting AI with AI: The New Spear Phishing \============================================== As our defenses evolve, so do the attackers. In 2026, we are witnessing the industrialization of AI-driven spear phishing. Bad actors are increasingly using [GenAI](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-generative-ai) to create hyperpersonalized, context-aware attacks that evade traditional email filters and network security tools. These are not standard phishing attempts. Messages are written to sound exactly like a trusted executive or manager, and mirror an employee's communication patterns. Each phishing page is uniquely generated for its target and when the user clicks on a link, it directs them to dynamic webpages that replicate the look, feel and behavior of legitimate enterprise login experiences, assembling the HTML entirely within the browser where legacy security has little visibility or control. ## Use Prisma Browser to Identify In-Browser AI-Generated Phishing Attacks To defend against AI-driven attacks that bypass known-bad lists, organizations must move beyond static reputation to real-time, in-browser analysis. To defend against AI-driven attacks, organizations must use AI directly in the browser. [Prisma Browser](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/prisma-browser) delivers this capability through an in-browser security engine that inspects and analyzes content as it renders, enabling protection that legacy controls cannot provide: * **Real-time intent analysis:** Uses computer vision and natural language processing (NLP) inside the browser to identify webpages that impersonate legitimate enterprise login experiences. * **Behavioral scoring:** Detects malicious scripts attempting to capture keystrokes or manipulate the DOM, stopping credential theft before it occurs. By securing what users actually see and interact with, Prisma Browser closes the visibility gap exploited by modern, AI-generated phishing attacks. 3. Secure GenAI: Compliance, Auditing and Prisma® AIRS™ \======================================================= With GenAI applications exploding in volume, compliance landscapes like the EU AI Act and emerging US regulations now mandate strict monitoring and auditing of AI interactions. It's not enough to know *that* an employee used an AI tool; you need to know what they asked and what the AI answered. Meeting these requirements demands browser-native protections built for AI, including monitoring and auditing, governance and runtime security. ## Prisma Browser Helps Secure GenAI Usage * **Monitoring and auditing:** Prisma Browser continuously audits user prompts and AI responses to ensure compliance with regulatory and corporate policies---such as GDPR restrictions on personal data, PCI requirements for payment information, IP protection policies and industry regulations, like HIPAA or the EU AI Act. * **Governance:** Prisma Browser continuously inspects user prompts to ensure data is not leaked by leveraging AI-driven classification that understands context, beyond just simpler classifications, like regular expressions, before the request even leaves the browser. * **Runtime security powered by** [**Prisma AIRS**](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/prisma/prisma-ai-runtime-security)**:** Prisma AIRS continuously inspects user prompts and AI responses to ensure topic guardrails and enforce policies that stop toxic or non-compliant interactions, such as hate speech generation or gambling queries, before the request even leaves the browser. 4. Extension Security: The Unguarded Frontier \============================================= Finally, we must address the elephant in the room: browser extensions. In recent months, malicious browser extensions have emerged as a full malware alternative operating inside the browser and enabling persistent, multistage attacks. Attackers are deploying "sleeper" extensions, which are add-ons that behave normally for months before activating hidden malicious functionality such as data exfiltration, or buying legitimate extensions and pushing malicious updates for supply chain attacks. A recent example of this found that over [8 million installs of eight extensions](https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/12/browser-extensions-with-8-million-users-collect-extended-ai-conversations/) were harvesting users' complete and extended AI conversations and selling them for marketing purposes. Seven of these extensions were endorsed by companies that claimed they met their quality standards, underscoring the need for full visibility and control of data sharing in GenAI applications. Currently, no traditional security solution in the industry effectively combats this. Traditional endpoint protection often misses the context of what an extension is doing inside the webpage as it cannot scan the extension. ## Prisma Browser Provides Continuous Security All the Way to Extensions Closing this gap requires a fundamental shift in how we secure the [browser](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-an-enterprise-browser). Security cannot be a one-time gate check; it must be continuous. Prisma Browser blocks malicious extensions preinstallation, during runtime, and after every update. The solution delivers real-time visibility into behavior: if an extension suddenly attempts to siphon data from a CRM tab, the browser must instantly detect the anomaly and stop the data exfiltration before it happens. # The Prisma Browser Advantage The browser of 2026 is powerful, agentic and increasingly autonomous. As work consolidates in the browser, security must evolve with it. Securing the future of work requires browser-native protection that delivers continuous visibility, inline enforcement and AI-driven prevention directly where users, data and AI interact. Organizations that treat the browser as the new control plane will be best positioned to enable innovation without sacrificing security, compliance or trust. [Prisma Browser](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/sase/prisma-browser) is ready to meet that challenge. Schedule a personalized [Prisma Browser demo](https://start.paloaltonetworks.com/prisma-access-browser-demo) today. *** ** * ** *** ## Related Blogs ### [AI Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/ai-security/?ts=markdown), [Announcement](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/announcement/?ts=markdown), [News \& Events](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/category/news-events/?ts=markdown) [#### Winning the AI Race Starts with the Right Security Platform](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2025/12/winning-ai-race-starts-with-right-security-platform/) ### [AI Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/ai-security/?ts=markdown), [Data Loss Prevention](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/data-loss-prevention/?ts=markdown), [Data Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/data-security/?ts=markdown), [Product Features](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/category/product-features/?ts=markdown) [#### Eight Data Security Problems Finally Solved in the Browser Era](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/eight-data-security-problems-finally-solved-in-the-browser-era/) ### [Product Features](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/category/product-features/?ts=markdown) [#### Agentic Browsers: The New Frontier in Web Security Risks](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/agentic-browsers-the-new-frontier-in-web-security-risks/) ### [AI Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/ai-security/?ts=markdown), [Announcement](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/announcement/?ts=markdown), [Ignite](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/ignite/?ts=markdown) [#### AI-Driven, Quantum-Ready Network Security](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2025/10/network-security-ai-powered-quantum-ready/) ### [AI Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/ai-security/?ts=markdown), [Product Features](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/category/product-features/?ts=markdown) [#### Prisma Browser Innovations: AI-Powered Security for Enterprise Work](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/sase/prisma-browser-innovations-ai-powered-security-for-enterprise-work/) ### [AI Governance](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/ai-governance/?ts=markdown), [AI Security](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/ai-security/?ts=markdown), [Points of View](https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/category/points-of-view/?ts=markdown) [#### Agentic AI and the Looming Board-Level Security Crisis](https://origin-researchcenter.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/2025/09/agentic-ai-looming-security-crisis/) ### Subscribe to Sase Blogs! 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