Google Chrome just got another generative AI feature: Skills. Skills are repeatable AI prompts you can run in Chrome with a keyboard shortcut. Add it to the laundry list of AI tools Google has been injecting into all of its software.
You can set up your own Skill using Gemini, Google’s chatbot, through the Chrome browser, or you can choose from the premade Skills Google released alongside this feature. The more than 50 presets in the Skills library cover a range of prompts that instruct Gemini to summarize YouTube videos, maximize your protein intake via recipe substitutions, or evaluate job listings.
If you want to try out Skills, open up the Gemini in Chrome sidebar by clicking on the “Ask Gemini” sparkle icon in the upper-right corner of the screen. Then, type a forward slash in the prompt box to pick which Skill you would like to run. After you select one, Gemini analyzes the information from the browser tabs you’ve shared, within the parameters of the details laid out in the Skill.
Here’s the full prompt from Google’s example of a “Protein Maximizer” Skill to show how these can be used to guide Gemini in Chrome:
Analyze the recipe on the current webpage, identify all ingredients, and estimate their protein content. Suggest substitutions or additions to maximize the overall protein content of the recipe, while maintaining the integrity of the original recipe’s flavor profile. Output the revised recipe with protein content listed for each ingredient and the total protein per serving.
Courtesy of Google
From my experience testing generative AI features in different browsers, I wouldn’t be surprised if these tools were a bit glitchy at launch and gradually improved over the next few months. It’s also easy to imagine this kind of browser tool catching on with productivity nerds looking to streamline workflows and save clicks. Even so, Skills seems like the kind of AI feature most Chrome users probably won’t even realize is an option as they’re browsing the web.
Users who aren’t interested in this feature but still want to use Chrome have the option of removing the Ask Gemini button by going into their Settings and opening the AI Innovations tab. Then, open the Gemini in Chrome section and make sure that the top toggle on that page is turned off. When this setting is toggled off, the Ask Gemini button disappears from the top of the Chrome browser.
Google’s rework of its Chrome browser for the AI era intensified earlier this year with the addition of Gemini in the Chrome sidebar, pitched as an always-present assistant sitting on the right side of your screen, ready to answer questions about what you’re seeing on the web. The company has also experimented with how generative AI can take control of Chrome to click and browse the web on a user’s behalf, though the company has since shaken up the team to focus on other projects.
Google is not alone in its attempts to make AI prompts more easily repeatable for users. The Opera Neon browser, a smaller Chrome competitor based in Norway, has a similar tool, called Cards, where users can reuse their own prompts or pick from a preset library. Some of the most popular options available on Opera Neon include tools for prioritizing tasks, planning movie nights, and scheduling cheap travel.
