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Introduction: The Browser Awakens — And You Have a New Colleague

Imagine opening your work browser only to find not a tired to-do list, but your new virtual colleague already setting search filters, filling out forms, purchasing test items for price checks, and booking competitor audits. This isn't futurism; it's 2026, where AI agents confidently step into the real web, operating in browsers just as adeptly as an experienced product manager or analyst. Today, we’ll explore why automation has taken a leap forward and why mobile proxies have suddenly become the critical infrastructure for any company wanting to outpace the competition.

We have good news and big plans. Our customer community is already trying out new scenarios, while we are enhancing our network of mobile proxies and tools for agent automation. In this article, we'll discuss what has happened, why it matters for businesses, and how to get started without unnecessary risks and costs.

The News: OpenAI’s Operator, Claude Computer Use, and Project Mariner Go Live

At the beginning of 2026, OpenAI expanded access to Operator — an AI agent that performs tasks directly in the browser: filling out forms, making purchases, booking services, and interacting with websites like a real user. Meanwhile, Anthropic is advancing Claude Computer Use, and Google is testing Project Mariner. Three directions, one trend: "smart" agents are moving from demo concepts to fully functional tools for automating routine tasks and complex business processes.

What’s changing right now? Automation is no longer confined to APIs and “faceless” headless scripts. AI agents operate in real browsers, perceive interfaces, "understand" page elements, control the mouse and keyboard, and crucially — act within the framework of user logic rather than just code. Their traffic and behavior models are becoming nearly indistinguishable from human sessions, which is why network access infrastructure is coming to the forefront.

Context: From RPA to Browser Agents

Over the past decade, businesses have learned to automate everything possible: from RPA scripts to headless browsers and API integrations. However, where APIs are closed and headless modes are detected by anti-bot systems, companies hit a ceiling. Large language models have taught machines to "understand" instructions and interfaces, while new mechanics of "Computer Use" and "browser agent" have added action to that understanding. As a result, in 2026, we find ourselves with a new paradigm: autonomous agents with access to a browser and tool ecosystems (parser, scheduler, result verification, retry) capable of functioning as full-fledged operators.

However, there's a caveat: for these agents to function globally, they require a safe, flexible, and maximally "human" network environment — with realistic identification, geography, network characteristics, and stable sessions. This is where mobile proxies become a key part of the stack.

Details: What New Agents Can Do and Why It Feels Revolutionary

OpenAI’s Operator has received expanded access and operates as a "browser executor": it navigates websites, manages multi-step forms, confirms actions, checks statuses, and returns reports. Claude Computer Use from Anthropic accelerates scenarios for interface analysis, where understanding contextual hints and micro-interactions matters. Meanwhile, Project Mariner from Google is being tested as a platform for web navigation with a focus on task performance quality and security.

The main news is not only in the names. This represents a qualitative shift. AI agents:

  • see pages through the eyes of a browser and react to dynamic content;
  • can navigate action sequences (from search to purchase) based on human logic;
  • form behavioral patterns similar to real users;
  • scale up to hundreds and thousands of parallel tasks;
  • self-verify outcomes and initiate retries in case of failures;
  • consume "real internet" and, as a result, require a well-thought-out network wrapper — from geography to IP type.

As a result, businesses gain tools that were previously only available through expensive custom development and involved a high degree of manual labor. Now, the key lies in correct integration and infrastructure.

Business Opportunities: From Competitor Monitoring to 24/7 UX Labs

Competitive Price and Offer Monitoring

Agents automatically gather prices, availability, promotions, delivery and return conditions, check differences by city and personalized segments. Using mobile proxies, this is done delicately and accurately: websites see natural mobile sessions from the needed regions, improving data quality. Market estimates suggest that businesses adopting agent monitoring reduce the update cycle for price insights by 3-5 times and increase comparison accuracy to 95-98%.

Scraping and Data Enrichment of Catalogs

When APIs are limited, AI agents carefully extract information from public pages, match it with your catalog, identify gaps in attributes, discover outdated photos, and compile a list of tasks for improvements. Mobile proxies ensure distribution across cities and operators, forming a realistic network surface for sustainable access.

Human-like UX and QA Testing

An agent can be assigned a scenario: finding a product, adding it to the cart, reconfiguring filters, changing the address, proceeding to the payment screen — and it will carry this out on a real page. This uncovers interface errors, tracking issues, complex edge cases, and micro-delays in rendering. By deploying mobile proxies across regions, you can see how your site feels to users in different cities and networks.

Content Verification by Region

For brands, it’s essential to understand what content, prices, and offers a user sees in a specific country or even city. The agent switches to the appropriate region via mobile proxy and captures screenshots, loading metrics, and widget behavior. The result is a unified auditing data dashboard that can easily be compared with campaign settings.

Advertising and Partnership Placement Verification

AI agents can visit platforms as "live" mobile users, checking banner visibility, redirect integrity, and correctness of UTM and postbacks. Mobile proxies help recreate the real ad environment and detect discrepancies.

Operational Tasks and Support

From partially automated brief completions to checking order statuses and dealer cabinets, agents relieve teams of routine work. They handle the interface gently and reduce loads on APIs or support teams.

Why Mobile Proxies are Key Infrastructure for AI Agents

When an agent acts like a human, the network environment must look and function like one. Here, mobile proxies provide critical advantages:

  • Believability. Mobile IPs belong to real telecom operators. Such traffic seamlessly fits into the behavioral model of real users.
  • Geography and Segmentation. Access to cities and countries, to operators and ASNs, enabling targeted testing of regional settings and localization.
  • Session Stability and Rotation. Controlled IP switching and "sticky" sessions support long user scenarios, including multi-page funnels.
  • Anti-Bot System Bypass. Mobile traffic with natural patterns reduces the risk of false positives, helping agents successfully complete scenarios.
  • Performance. Modern 4G/5G networks provide acceptable latency and speed for interactive tasks, especially with local routing.

In 2026, we see mobile proxies becoming the "network fabric" for agent platforms. Where data center IPs were enough yesterday, today, behavior naturalness and geographical flexibility are required. We are building infrastructure focused on quality, transparency, and control so your agent can be a polite guest, not a noisy stranger.

Technological Stack of Agent Automation: How It Works

Robust projects consist of several layers:

  • LLM Core and Scheduler. A model that understands goals, decomposes tasks, and selects tools. Augmented with rules, constraints, and quality metrics.
  • Browser Executor. A layer that clicks, types, scrolls, waits for rendering, and checks results. Correct timing, error handling, and timeouts are crucial here.
  • Tools. DOM parsing, image text recognition, screenshot capturing, logging, file uploads, form interactions, payment widgets, and maps.
  • Network Layer. Mobile proxies, geo and operator targeting, IP and session management, limits and rotation, speed and parallelism control.
  • Observability. Agent action tracing, recording key events, metrics on success rates, retries, step times, and error sources.
  • Security and Compliance. Encryption, secret management, least privilege access, auditing, and respectful interaction policies with websites and users.

We provide the network component and integration tools to ensure your agent scenarios thrive long-term and deliver measurable benefits.

Comparison: How It Was Yesterday and How It Is Today

  • Yesterday: Headless scripts vulnerable to detection, limited APIs, and many manual rules. Restricted scenario coverage, especially where interfaces are complex or dynamic.
  • Today: AI agents operate in a "live" browser, understand interfaces, learn from their mistakes, and complete complex sequences. Traffic resembles human behavior, and mobile proxies create a natural network environment.
  • Yesterday: Geo-testing often boiled down to VPNs and general IP pools.
  • Today: Granular geography, telecommunications operators, sticky sessions, and controlled rotation create an authentic world picture.
  • Yesterday: QA consisted of isolated manual runs and screenshots.
  • Today: Continuous UX testing in real conditions with hundreds of parallel scenarios and automated reporting.

Practical Tips: How to Launch Agent Automation in 30 Days

1. Choose 2-3 Quick-Return Scenarios

These can be price and availability monitoring, checking regional content, and verifying ads. Limit the scope, clearly describe success criteria, and metrics: percentage of completed scenarios, time per step, accuracy of extractions, retry frequency.

2. Design Your Network Map

Determine in which countries and cities your presence is crucial. Assign segments: "price gathering", "UX audit", "advertising". Select mobile proxies with the right geography and "sticky" session capability for long funnels.

3. Set Limits and Etiquette

Specify request frequency, running schedules, and pauses to avoid overwhelming platforms. Respectful traffic reduces blocking risks and increases stability.

4. Enable Observability

Log key agent steps, capture screenshots at checkpoints, and track metrics by hours and regions. This will help you rapidly improve scenarios.

5. Pilot, Then Scale

Start with 50-100 parallel sessions, measure metrics, optimize expectations, and only then scale up to hundreds and thousands. Plan your proxy and computing budget in advance based on actual pilot figures.

6. Incorporate Security and Compliance

Update your data usage policy, comply with website and legal requirements, keep credentials in secure storage, and differentiate access levels.

Use Cases: Illustrative Cases

  • Retail and Marketplaces. The agent navigates the path from "search — filter — comparison — cart" in 15-20 popular categories, records final prices including coupons, and checks delivery across 10 cities. Mobile proxies ensure the reliability of the regional picture.
  • Tourism and Booking. Daily checks on rates and room availability across different time zones, comparison of cancellation conditions, control over localization, currencies, and fees.
  • Banks and Fintech. Regional UX audits of public interfaces: from calculators to promo pages. Verifying the correctness of A/B tests and experiments. (Important: without access to personal data and in compliance with all rules.)
  • Media and AdTech. Placement verification: banner display, targeted redirects, consistency of targeting across different devices.
  • EdTech and SaaS. Automated onboarding tours, checking tutorials, validating knowledge base content, ensuring availability of working features by roles.

Success Metrics: How to Know When the Project Has Lifted Off

  • Completed Scenarios. The proportion of flows reaching the final point and the average number of retries.
  • Data Quality. The percentage of valid extractions, consistency by regions, and the share of discrepancies automatically resolved.
  • Time. Average step duration, total scenario time, dynamics during peak hours.
  • Economics. Cost per full session, expenses on proxies and computing, ROI through reduced manual labor and missed opportunities.
  • Reliability. Error frequency per 1,000 steps, resilience to anti-bot mechanisms, and the average number of "sticky" sessions before rotation.

Security and Responsible Use

We embrace the principle of "respectful automation". This means:

  • Compliance with website terms. Adjust frequency to avoid strain on platforms and operate within their rules.
  • Transparency of processes. Maintain a log of agent actions and preserve a proof base for audits.
  • Data Protection. Do not collect unnecessary data, encrypt sensitive information, store keys and tokens in a secure environment.
  • Legal Compliance. Consider local laws and restrictions on content, privacy, and data access.

We help customers establish safe patterns and provide tools to control speed, sessions, and geography.

Forecasts for 2026: What Lies Ahead

  • Growth of Agent Traffic Share. Industry estimates suggest that by the end of 2026, 25-35% of "operational" web traffic for large companies will be generated by agents in browsers.
  • Native Integrations. Ready connectors will emerge for popular CRM, DAM, and analytics platforms, accelerating adoption.
  • Interaction Standards. The market will develop a "code of conduct" for agent traffic: recommended frequencies, retry rules, and good faith signals.
  • Evolution of Anti-Bot Systems. Protection systems will become smarter, but agents will also learn to better explain their actions and respond correctly to checks.
  • Infrastructure Drift Towards Mobile Networks. Mobile and residential proxies will become the "default" for scenarios where believability is critical.

FAQ: 7 Frequently Asked Questions

1. What’s the difference between a headless bot and a browser-based AI agent?

A headless script is code running without an interface. An agent is an LLM-driven executor that really works in a browser, sees the page, and makes decisions in real-time.

2. Why proxies at all if the agent operates "like a person"?

To look and behave like a real user within a specific region and network. Proxies provide geography, stable sessions, and natural network characteristics.

3. Why mobile proxies specifically?

Mobile IPs belong to telecom operators and offer the most believable network environment, increasing success rates and reducing false blocks.

4. Won’t we get blocked for agent traffic?

Follow platform rules, set polite limits, use sticky sessions and controlled rotation. We will help you configure parameters and architecture.

5. Where to start if we don’t have an ML team?

Start with ready-made agent platforms and limited scenarios. We provide the network component, recommendations, and implementation templates.

6. What are the costs?

The cost comprises proxies, computing, and tools. Start with a 30-day pilot to evaluate the economics and ROI based on real metrics.

7. What if the website changes its layout?

Agent systems are more resilient to DOM changes as they rely on visual and semantic signals. Additionally, observability metrics will indicate where logic needs to be updated.

How to Connect: A Simple Action Plan

  1. Submit a request for a pilot and specify target scenarios.
  2. Gain access to a pool of mobile proxies in required regions and operators.
  3. Connect the agent and insert session configurations (sticky, rotation, limits).
  4. Launch test runs and collect quality metrics.
  5. Scale after confirming value and stability.

Call to Action: Time to Edge Out the Competition

2026 is the year when the browser became a workspace for autonomous agents. Those who adopt this first will secure an advantage for years to come. We offer you the infrastructure that makes agents feel at home: a powerful network of mobile proxies, flexible geography, stable "sticky" sessions, careful rotation, and observability to get everything right.

Ready to give it a try?

  • Request a 30-day pilot for two scenarios.
  • Get recommendations on architecture and traffic parameters.
  • Connect mobile proxies and see how easily agents can operate "like humans".

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