Mozilla’s New CEO Says Firefox Will ‘Evolve into an AI Browser’

Anthony Enzor-DeMeo has finally taken up his role as CEO of Mozilla Corporation, publishing a blog post to celebrate in which he spells out the company’s “next chapter”.

The headline news? He says Firefox will remain an “anchor” for the company, but confirms it is to “evolve into a modern AI browser” — to unlock new revenue opportunities for the company.

Enzor-DeMeo’s post is refreshingly light on the GPT-isms most of Mozilla’s recent public output is full of, suggesting that a human wrote it. But the vision laid out within reads like one where revenue matters more than users do.

My snarky explainer on Mozilla’s”rewiring” to AI — where year-on-year revenue increases from AI features form part of a “double bottom line” for the company — touched on reasons why the pivot is more about C-suite’s needs than us plebs riding cattle-class.

And the AI strategy hinges, in part, on the upcoming Firefox AI Window, rumoured to be a prompt-driven experience where we type in questions rather than Urls, and read machine-mediated summaries of what a human wrote, than hear a human speak.

AI Features in Firefox Will be Opt-Out

Mozilla’s new CEO says all of the upcoming changes will give us “agency” (their new favourite word), but his phrasing is telling: Enzor-DeMeo says it’s important that AI features in Firefox will be “something people can easily turn off”.

But here’s the risk: while opting out is ‘agency’, if AI revenue is part of a “double bottom line”, i.e., non-negotiable, how easy will “easily” be? Will there be a single button, or will it mean diving through menus, opening about:config, or configuring an enterprise policy?

Mozilla’s revenue needs point one way, while the constant framing of our agency points the other.

With Mozilla’s primary revenue coming from a Google search deal that, because of the rise of AI chatbots and other AI browsers, looks like a shaky future, the need to grow Firefox from a user-agent to an AI platform helps hang a “For Rental” sign on its door.

Integration deals with AI providers – it added Perplexity as a search option recently – is likely the company’s only viable way to replace it (or at least persuade Google to keep providing it).

AI features: for our benefit, or Mozilla’s bottom line?

“Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions”, the new CEO says.

Is the world demanding more AI, or even more products from Mozilla given how few use its current offerings? Mozilla’s CEO must be betting on the latter.

OpenAI’s Atlas, Perplexity’s Comet Google (with Chrome’s AI feature injection and its conceptual Disco), and Microsoft Edge all have something Mozilla’s efforts don’t: building AI browsers with their own AI stacks – models, infrastructure, talent and billions in R&D spend.

Mozilla? It’s integrating other companies’ AI (chatbots, summaries) while its own on-device AI features are mostly powered by models they don’t control (most based on Meta’s open-source llama models, but Zuckerberg is reportedly making llama’s successor proprietary).

If Meta pulls the ladder up, Mozilla’s AI ambitions could be affected.

And that’s to say nothing of the fact all of those other AI browsers are based on Chromium.

If Mozilla gets this wrong… I mean, an AI-focused Firefox might generate revenue, but that revenue relies on users. A failed AI-focused Firefox – not attracting new users, losing existing ones – could spell doom for the bulwark against a browser monoculture.

Desperation or innovation?

I accept that Mozilla’s dilemma is real: Google search deal is shaky, browser donations don’t scale and competing on (belated) features alone isn’t moving the needle on its steep marketshare declines.

Yet rather than doubling down on what it does well, i.e., giving real choice and actual agency in a web landscape increasingly hostile to both, Mozilla’s new leadership wants to… Chase the same AI gold rush everyone else is, but with fewer resources and less credibility.

As someone who chose Firefox because it wasn’t doing the same things other companies were, was committed to open standards and championing an open web where the little guys’ needs weren’t overlooked for the Goliaths’, I’m kind of left wondering who’s fighting for us?