Responsibility stays small
You can decide that it assists one operation on one screen. That is a narrower target than making an AI understand an entire business system.
01 · WHY AN EXTENSION
Add a small improvement
without changing how you work.
A Chrome extension can add a small feature to a web service you already use, without rebuilding the service itself.
And these days, AI makes software this small easier to build than it used to be.
- 01 Build it small.
- 02 A person checks it.
- 03 Use it in the browser.
Build with AI, review the result yourself, then use it in Chrome.
02 · BETWEEN YOU AND THE SERVICE
A Chrome extension sits between you and the web service.
A web service is built for its own purposes. The one extra step your team needs is not usually something you can ask the service to add for you.
An extension does not rebuild that screen. It lives in your browser and layers a small feature — a check, a bit of tidying — on top of the page you are already looking at.
You
Typing, pasting, attaching, sending. The decision happens here.
Browser (where the extension runs)
This is where the extension goes: on top of the page currently open.
Web service
Unchanged. No rework, no configuration change, no migration.
The extension runs inside your browser. It is not reaching into the service.
An extension's scope is limited to the browser. It cannot replace a service's core processes or directly change data managed by that service.
03 · AI × EXTENSION
Small software written with AI, and Chrome extensions, suit each other.
AI is bringing down the cost of writing software considerably.
Asking AI to build an entire system is not always the best approach. The larger the task, the more code and behaviour you need to review.
Software that meets these conditions tends to work better with AI development:
- It has a single purpose
- The screen it acts on is well defined
- Its inputs and outputs are small
- The permissions it needs are explicit
- A person can verify how it behaves
A Chrome extension can meet those conditions by helping with one operation on one screen. That can be enough to make a useful tool.
AI does not make building an extension easy for everyone. You still need to decide what to build and whether it is ready to publish. A smaller scope makes that review more manageable.
04 · DEVELOPMENT LOOP
Generate with AI, check it, then use it.
Build, test and revise in short cycles, with a human review before the tool is used.
AI DOES THIS PART
A small problem in real work
"On this screen, I check this every single time." Narrow it until it fits in one sentence.
AI agent / AI coding
Not all at once: split the work and have it implemented in small pieces.
A small Chrome extension
One purpose, one screen. At this point it only runs — nothing more.
Check the permissions, the code and the behaviour (a person, or a process)
What was generated does not go straight into use. It passes through here first.
- manifest permissions
- external requests
- where data is stored
- behaviour in a real browser
PEOPLE USE IT
Used in Chrome
The usual browser, the usual screen. The steps people take stay much as they were.
Feedback
The friction you only find by using it. Most of it never shows up in a code review.
Improve
The area to change is small, so deciding whether to change it is light work too.
Once improved, you are back at defining the problem. How fast that circle turns is the advantage of working this way.
AI-generated code is not automatically safe to use. Someone needs to review the code and test how it behaves before using it.
Why this shape fits AI development
The browser is the runtime
For a feature that finishes inside the browser, you can get there without standing up a large server platform. Not every requirement works out that way.
Permissions are visible
Chrome extensions declare their permissions in a manifest. Check it to see what the AI-generated code is asking to access.
Behaviour is easy to check
Typing, clicking, copying, sending. The operations involved are reasonably clear, so you can try it yourself in a real browser.
Improvement stays small
Instead of finishing one enormous system, you get a short cycle: build, use, get annoyed, fix.
05 · NO BIG MIGRATION
It does not require a large system change.
Replacing a business system is large in cost, in time and in the number of people involved. For a problem the size of "I check this every time on this screen", a change of that scale is not realistic.
An extension leaves the existing screen where it is and adds on top of it. For the people using it, the steps stay much the same.
- There are cases where you can start without any change on the service side
- You can try it while keeping today's screens and steps
- If it does not fit, remove it and you are back where you were
An extension will not suit every task. Processing outside the browser and requirements involving the service's own data consistency are beyond its scope.
AI × CHROME EXTENSION × ENTERPRISE
Stack the three, and it becomes something you can keep doing.
Together, these steps cover how a tool is built, used and managed after it is ready.
LAYER 01
AI
Builds small features on a short cycle. Split the spec, have it implemented, have a person check it.
LAYER 02
Chrome Extension
Adds the feature to existing web work — delivered on top of the screen, without rebuilding the service.
LAYER 03
Enterprise Management
Allows, distributes and controls it for the right people. Admins decide who gets it and what is permitted.
Combined, the three layers describe one approach: keep adding small improvements to daily work, without rebuilding the existing systems.
06 · PERSONAL, TEAM, COMPANY
Start alone, use it as a team, manage it as a company.
If most of the work happens in a browser, the extra step you want to remove is in there too. So the thing one person tried can spread to a team, and to an organisation if it needs to. The unit changes; the tool does not.
Personal
Install it in your own browser to make your own work lighter. Nobody else has to agree, so you can try it today.
Team
A few people who look at the same screen every day. Both the benefit and the side effects show up quickly, so you can decide quickly.
Enterprise
Distribute it to a defined group and manage it by policy. What informs that decision is the permissions requested and a description of what it actually does.
07 · CHROME ENTERPRISE
In a company, admins can allow, distribute and control it.
Extensions are not necessarily something each person installs on their own. From the Google Admin console (Chrome Enterprise Core), an organisation can push policy to its managed Chrome browsers — so the question of using extensions at work can be discussed on that footing.
- Choose the overall stance. In the Admin console you can allow everything and maintain a blocklist, block everything and maintain an allowlist, or run an allowlist that also accepts requests from users.
- Name individual extensions. Policies such as ExtensionInstallAllowlist, ExtensionInstallBlocklist, ExtensionInstallForcelist and ExtensionSettings decide how each extension is treated.
- Decide by permission. You can allow or refuse extensions on the basis of the permissions they request, and stop them running on particular sites.
- Take requests. Extension requests from users can be allowed, blocked or force-installed by an admin.
- Publish inside the organisation. There is a way to publish only to your own Google Workspace domain (your organisation's own Chrome Web Store).
How far any of this goes depends on the edition you have and on how it is configured. Check with your own administrators and with Google's documentation before deciding anything. The pages below are Google's.
Allow or block apps and extensionssupport.google.com
Extension workflows: let users request extensionssupport.google.com
Chrome Enterprise policy listchromeenterprise.google
Enterprise publishing optionsdeveloper.chrome.com
08 · WE BUILD THIS WAY TOO
Legacy Tools is built this way as well.
What this site publishes is small Chrome extensions. Each one is for a single moment — check before you send, replace before you paste — not a general-purpose business system.
They are built the way this page describes: write the problem as one sentence, have the AI implement it in separate pieces, load it into my own Chrome and use it, and check the permissions, the network calls and the storage before publishing.
What eight of them taught me is that the part AI can take on and the part a person has to decide are clearly separate. Deciding what to build, and whether it is fit to publish, takes longer than the building.
How to build a Chrome extension with AI — from idea to the Chrome Web Store
Defining the problem, the MVP, splitting the work for the AI, checking permissions, store assets, review.
Read →
Why Chrome extensions rather than a web service
On putting the tool inside the browser people already use, instead of asking them to learn a new service.
Read →
See the tools we publish
Each one is for a single moment. All free, all installable from the Chrome Web Store.
View →
09 · PERMISSIONS AND LOCAL PROCESSING
"It is an extension, so it is safe" is not true. That is why you check.
Extensions can request access to page content and what you type. Being a Chrome extension is not a guarantee of safety, so review those permissions before using one at work.
What you do get is the ability to check. The permissions it needs are declared in the manifest and shown at install time, so you can read what it reaches before you add it.
- Which sites it runs on
- What it stores, and where
- Whether it sends anything outside
- Whether each update asks for more than the last one
The tools here are designed to finish their work inside the browser and not send what you type anywhere. The permissions and the scope of processing are listed per product on the transparency page.
10 · ALONGSIDE EXISTING CONTROLS
It is not a replacement for DLP or audit logging.
Organisations already have controls for handling information, such as DLP, logging, auditing and access controls. An extension does not replace them.
It sits somewhere else. Most controls act as data travels a path, or after it has travelled. An extension acts before that — in the seconds before a person presses send.
Use extensions alongside existing controls. An extra check before sending does not remove the need for those controls, or for people to decide what they should send.
And the extension is itself subject to control: which extensions are allowed, and who gets them, is an admin decision, as in 07. "Unvetted extensions will pile up" and "improve the work with an extension" can be true under the same policy.
11 · START WITH ONE
Start with one piece of work.
You do not have to start from a company-wide plan. One screen, one operation, one team. At that size, you can undo it if it does not fit.
-
1
Write the problem as one sentence
On which screen, doing what, checking what. While that sentence stays vague, whatever gets built will be vague too.
-
2
See whether something already does it
An extension that does the same thing may already be published. If so, checking its permissions and behaviour and choosing it beats building your own.
-
3
Build it small, then use it yourself
One screen, one operation. Once it runs, use it in a real browser yourself. There is friction you will not find by reading the code.
-
4
Check it, then widen it
Check the permissions and the behaviour, then take it to the team. For an organisation, distribution and policy come in at that point. Reverse the order and it gets hard to walk back.
Chrome extensions can be limited to a small set of functions and a narrow scope. That makes them a practical fit for building with AI and reviewing the result yourself. It does not mean AI makes the work easy or that extensions are inherently safe.
See the tools we publish
All free, each for a single moment. Using one is the quickest way to check any of this.
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Find a tool by what you want to do
Pick from the task side — "tidy text before handing it to an AI", and others.
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Ask a question
If you want something confirmed about permissions or behaviour, the support page has the contact form.
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