Cloudflare has entered the growing race to develop web browsers, but its latest offering is aimed not at consumers seeking an alternative to Chrome, but at the rapidly expanding market for AI agents.

The internet infrastructure company has launched Kitesurf, a cloud-hosted browser designed specifically for AI agents that can perform tasks on behalf of users.

The move comes as AI technology evolves beyond conventional chatbots that respond to prompts towards autonomous agents capable of navigating websites and completing tasks.

AI agents will need browsers to navigate the web and interact with websites much like humans do.

Unlike traditional web browsers designed for humans, AI-focused browsers do not need to prioritise visual features such as themes, tabs or browser extensions, Cloudflare said in its announcement.

Instead, browsers built for AI agents must be optimised for factors such as context windows, performance, token costs and scalability.

They also face a different set of security risks, as AI browsers could be vulnerable to threats such as prompt injection attacks, the company noted.

Cloudflare said it began developing Kitesurf just 12 weeks ago, with the browser running entirely on its serverless computing platform, Workers.

The company is offering Kitesurf for free during its beta phase through Browser Run, a service that allows developers to programmatically control and interact with headless browser instances running on Cloudflare’s network.

For developers, Cloudflare says the technology allows AI agents to navigate and interact with the web more efficiently while consuming less computing power than Chromium, potentially reducing operating costs.