IntentWeave: A Progressive Entry Ladder for Multi-Surface Browser Agents in Cloud Portals
This addresses the user experience issue of integrating AI agents into multi-surface cloud portals, though it is incremental as it builds on existing browser agent designs.
The paper tackled the problem of browser agents being confined to single chat surfaces, which increases context-switching and reduces user control, by introducing IntentWeave, a design space of ten spatial paradigms for embedding agentic assistance across a browser; in a study with 16 participants, a mixed sidecar approach achieved the highest satisfaction.
Browser agents built on LLMs can act in web interfaces, yet most remain confined to a single chat surface (e.g., a sidebar). This mismatch with real browsing can increase context-switching and reduce user control. We introduce \textbf{IntentWeave}, a design space of ten spatial paradigms for embedding agentic assistance across a browser, organized as a progressive entry ladder from micro-interventions to dedicated workspaces. We implement IntentWeave as a browser-extension prototype on the Alibaba Cloud website and compare three entry strategies in a within-subjects study (N=16). Workspace-heavy strategies reduced completion time but lowered perceived control; micro-only strategies preserved control but were often insufficient; a mixed sidecar approach achieved the highest satisfaction. We conclude with guidance for escalating and retreating agent surfaces without disrupting user agency.