From startups to Fortune 500 companies, leaders frequently ask Asteroid: “What should we be automating with browser agents?”
With frontier AI models becoming cheaper, smarter, and more capable of handling complex UIs, it might seem like most tasks are now automatable. In reality, it’s not practical or beneficial to automate all browser workflows using agents.
We’ve spoken extensively with product managers, CEOs, Heads of Operations, and Heads of Innovation across various industries, in order to find out what really is worth automating.
Here’s our comprehensive guide to help you identify browser automation opportunities that deliver the highest ROI.
Deploying browser agents usually involves two main considerations:
- Business considerations - “How much more money will we make or save?”
- Technical considerations - “How complex is this automation?“
1. Business Considerations
Ideal browser automation tasks are high-volume, clearly defined, and offer a strong return on investment (ROI). By automating these tasks, businesses can significantly cut costs, increase revenue, and enhance customer experiences.
Key factors to prioritize:
- High-Volume Tasks: Regular, repetitive tasks performed by multiple team members daily, leading directly to cost savings.
- Cost Reduction or Revenue Growth: Tasks that, when automated, allow you to scale operations significantly and boost revenue.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Tasks whose automation unlocks superior customer experiences, such as faster quotes, better pricing, or quicker service.
Example Use Case: Insurance Quoting with Voice/Chat accelerated by Browser Agents
Traditional insurance quoting involves manual data entry across multiple carrier portals, limiting efficiency and customer options.
💡 Cost Reduction Benefit: Insurance agencies often employ hundreds of agents performing repetitive manual data entry. Automating this task drastically reduces costs by enabling instant quoting across multiple carriers, allowing businesses to offer more competitive pricing.
💡 Enhanced Customer Experience: Combining browser automation with voice or chat agents delivers previously impossible customer experiences. Customers receive immediate, accurate responses through voice or chat interactions, while browser agents seamlessly manage data retrieval and form completion behind the scenes.
2. Technical Considerations
Thanks to improvements in LLM reasoning capabilities (o3, Claude 4), extended context windows, and more precise computer-use models, browser AI agents can now perform complex workflows previously impossible to automate.
The best use cases typically involve clearly defined browser workflows with measurable success criteria, do not require immediate responses (customers are not actively waiting), and can be effectively managed with human oversight.
Tasks best suited for browser automation meet the following technical criteria:
- Primarily Browser-Based: Over 90% of the task happens within a browser environment.
- Measurable Success Criteria: Clearly defined outcomes that confirm task completion (e.g., a confirmation message or submission acknowledgment).
- Clearly Described or Easily Recordable Steps: Users can easily document the steps via written instructions or by recording browser actions directly.
- Low-Risk / Non-Destructive: Errors or edge cases can be safely managed or escalated without causing harm or significant disruption.
- Human Triage Friendly: Easy for humans to intervene, review, and manage exceptions effectively.
- Not Cloudflare-Protected: The task should not involve heavily protected sites (e.g., Cloudflare’s advanced bot protection).
- Low Authentication Complexity: Simple login processes without complex multi-factor authentication or frequent token expirations.
- Latency Tolerant (Asynchronous execution acceptable): Task completion doesn’t require instant responses; tasks can run in the background without negatively impacting user experience.
Browser Agents Complexity Matrix for Common Use Cases
This matrix helps you quickly evaluate the suitability and complexity of some popular browser automation tasks, ordered from best to worst fit:
| Use Case | Fit | ROI | Complexity | Browser- Based | Measurable Success | Described/ Recorded Steps | Low-Risk / Non- Destructive | Human Triage | No Cloudflare Protection | Low Auth Complexity | Latency Tolerant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Form Filling (Internal Portals) | ✅ | High | Low | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Insurance Quoting (Multi-Carrier) | ✅ | High | High | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ⚠️ | ⚠️ |
| Healthcare EHR Updates | ✅ | High | Medium | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ⚠️ |
| Internal Dashboard Updates | ✅ | Medium | Low | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Appointment Scheduling | ✅ | Medium | Low | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ |
| Ecommerce Order Entry | ⚠️ | High | Medium | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ⚠️ |
| Claims Processing | ⚠️ | High | High | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ⚠️ |
| Property Listing Updates | ✅ | Medium | Low | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Student Enrollment Data Entry | ✅ | Medium | Low | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| UI Regression Testing | ⚠️ | Medium | Medium | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Real-Time Inventory Sync (Supplier Portals) | ⚠️ | High | High | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ⚠️ | ❌ | ⚠️ | ✅ |
| Financial Modelling in Google Sheets | ❌ | Medium | High | ✅ | ⚠️ | ⚠️ | ⚠️ | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ |
| LinkedIn Outreach | ❌ | Low | Medium | ✅ | ⚠️ | ⚠️ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ⚠️ | ✅ |
How to Use This Guide
- Assess your workflow against the listed considerations.
- Use the complexity matrix to quickly identify suitable automation candidates.
- Prioritize and scale tasks marked with ”✅” or “⚠️” with browser agents for maximum ROI.
Launch your first high-impact browser agent
Browser agents offer transformative potential by reducing costs, enhancing customer experience, and unlocking entirely new workflows.
At Asteroid, we’ve guided customers in identifying, piloting, and scaling the most impactful browser automation scenarios.
Want to start building with us? We’d be happy to help you discover where browser agents can accelerate your business. We’re now onboarding new teams to the Asteroid platform: