AI & I Best of the Pod: Would You Shut Down Your Most Successful Product? The Arc to Dia Story
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Nov 26, 2025 
Josh Miller and Hursh Agrawal, co-founders of The Browser Company, recount their bold decision to halt Arc in favor of launching Dia, a next-gen browser infused with AI. They reveal the intense public backlash they faced and the essential reasons behind their pivot, emphasizing how AI demanded a fresh architectural approach. The duo shares insights into their prototype culture and the exciting user feedback on Dia's AI capabilities. They discuss the emotional struggles and team dynamics during this transition, highlighting the vision of a browser as a personal intelligence layer.
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Browser As Infrastructure, Assistant As Main Event
- Josh and Hursh realized AI would change primary interfaces from clicking to talking and a new personal intelligence layer would sit across devices.
- The browser is the enabling infrastructure but not the main event; the assistant on top is where value lies.
Prototype Tweet That Blew Up
- Josh prototyped a mobile browser that generated perfect webpages on the fly instead of returning links and casually tweeted it.</n- That prototype unexpectedly exploded in interest and influenced Dia's focused product philosophy.
Search Is The Browser's Choke Point
- Arc Search revealed that the browser funnels user intent and that AI will transform the intent funnel into models that directly answer queries.
- This changed their strategy: rethink the browser's role because AI alters both search intent and application-platform functions.