Google is integrating more AI capabilities into its Chrome browser, announcing a new feature called “Skills” that allows users to save and reuse their favorite AI prompts across different websites without retyping them. The move is designed to streamline workflows and make common web-based tasks more efficient.
Quick Facts
- New feature named “Skills” for Chrome’s Gemini AI.
- Allows users to save and reuse custom AI prompts.
- Includes a library of pre-built Skills for common tasks.
Streamlining AI Workflows
The new feature is an extension of Google’s Gemini AI integration within Chrome, which already allows users to summarize pages or ask questions about on-screen content. Skills takes this a step further by letting users save complex or frequently used prompts.
For example, a user who often looks for vegan alternatives on recipe websites can save the prompt “suggest vegan substitutions for this recipe” as a Skill. This saved prompt can then be activated on any recipe page with a single click, saving time and effort.
To use the feature, users can save a prompt as a Skill directly from their Gemini chat history. Saved Skills can then be accessed by typing a forward slash (/) or clicking the plus (+) button within the Gemini interface in Chrome, applying the prompt to the current webpage.
A Library of Actions and Use Cases
To help users get started, Google is also rolling out a Skills library. This will contain a collection of pre-programmed prompts for tasks related to productivity, shopping, budgeting, and more. Users can add these pre-built Skills to their personal collection and customize them as needed.
Early testing showed adopters using Skills for a variety of tasks, from calculating protein macros in recipes and comparing products while shopping to scanning and summarizing long documents for research. As with other Gemini actions, Skills will request user confirmation before performing sensitive actions like sending an email or adding an event to a calendar.
Relevance for MENA’s Tech Professionals
For founders, marketers, and VCs across the MENA region, tools that boost productivity are critical. Google’s new Skills feature presents a practical way to automate routine digital tasks. Professionals can create custom Skills to speed up market research by summarizing competitor websites, extract key data from financial reports, or even draft social media posts based on an article’s content.
This update also positions Google more competitively against a new wave of AI-focused browsers from companies like OpenAI (Atlas) and Perplexity (Comet). As the MENA tech ecosystem continues to adopt AI tools, features like Skills that lower the barrier to entry and offer tangible efficiency gains will be closely watched.
The feature is beginning its rollout to Chrome desktop users who are signed into their Google account, initially available for browsers set to English (US).
About Google
Google is a global technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include online advertising technologies, a search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware. It is considered one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.
Source: TechCrunch
