Supercharge your organization’s productivity with the Amazon Q Business browser extension

TL;DR

• Amazon Q Business now brings context-aware, generative AI assistance directly into the browser for Lite and Pro subscribers, across major browsers.
• The extension works with your Amazon Q Business web experience to help you analyze reports, external analyses, and industry documents with trusted data sources.
• It supports including web page context in queries via file attachments (General knowledge mode requires admin grants), enabling real-time content validation and cross-source insights.
• Conversations are not used to train the LLM and are stored only within the Amazon Q Business web experience for 30 days, with user controls to delete them.

Context and background

Generative AI solutions are transforming how teams work, offering faster access to insights from increasingly fragmented data. Yet, two common hurdles complicate adoption: users often have to move data out of familiar workflows to interact with an AI assistant, and AI features aren’t always available inside the software teams already rely on. Amazon Q Business addresses these frictions by acting as a generative AI-powered assistant that can converse, analyze, and act by connecting to company data and enterprise systems. This approach aims to reduce time-to-value, preserve human judgment in decision-making, and unlock creativity and collaboration in the workplace. In the latest update, the Amazon Q Business browser extension extends these capabilities directly into users’ browsers, making AI-driven help readily accessible where work happens. This post summarizes how to implement the extension for your enterprise, and how it integrates with your existing Amazon Q Business setup. As noted in the AWS ML Blog, the browser extension is deployed to all Amazonians and is available to Amazon Q Business subscribers (Lite and Pro). AWS ML Blog.

What’s new

• The Amazon Q Business browser extension delivers AI-powered assistance directly in users’ browsers, leveraging the Amazon Q Business web experience for authentication and access to features.
• It is available to Amazon Q Business subscribers (Lite and Pro) and deployed to all Amazonians, enabling on-the-go access to AI-driven insights and guidance.
• Users can incorporate web page context into queries by attaching page content as files, expanding the scope of information the AI can reason about when allowed (General knowledge mode requires admin authorization to send queries to the LLM).
• The extension works with major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge) and is configured to detect the correct web experience URL from open tabs during sign-in.
• Admins can deploy the extension across devices and tailor the experience through browser policies and customization options.

Why it matters (impact for developers/enterprises)

For business and technical teams, the browser extension provides a streamlined way to synthesize information from internal reports, external analyses, and industry documents without leaving the browser. By enabling context-rich queries, analysts can identify trends, validate content in real time, and DevOps-like teams can verify data against web-based sources while maintaining human oversight. The extension lowers the friction of AI adoption by embedding assistance within everyday workflow tools, increasing productivity across departments and reducing time spent switching between apps. This alignment of AI with existing enterprise data, systems, and workflows helps organizations scale AI-enabled decision making while preserving data governance and source credibility. In short, the extension makes AI-assisted work more practical, traceable, and actionable, not just aspirational. For a fuller explanation, see the AWS ML Blog post cited above. AWS ML Blog.

Technical details or Implementation

Getting started requires aligning Amazon Q Business with your corporate identity and web experience:

• Create an Amazon Q Business web experience for your users, then deploy it and obtain the hosting URL from the application details page. If you already have a custom web experience via the Amazon Q Business APIs, you can reuse or recreate it as needed.
• The Amazon Q Business browser extension authenticates users via the Amazon Q Business web experience client, so you must deploy and point users to the proper web experience URL at sign-in.
• To enable the extension for your users, ensure they have access to the web experience URL. If you want to avoid delivering a URL at sign-in, you can set a default URL using the Q_BIZ_BROWSER_EXTENSION_URL policy for your users.
• The extension can include your users’ web page context in queries by attaching the page content as a file alongside prompts. This feature is available only when users have been granted access to send queries directly to the large language model (LLM) in General knowledge mode.
• Privacy and data handling: Amazon Q Business does not store user conversation data for training its LLMs. Conversations are stored within the application for 30 days and can be deleted by the user via the Chat section of the web experience.
• Admin and deployment considerations: Some organizations deploy the extension at scale across devices, leveraging enterprise mobility management and browser policy controls. If you use an external IdP, you must allow-list the extension URLs with the IdP before users can start using it. If you use AWS IAM Identity Center, the allow-list step is not required.
• Customization and policy values: Administrators can tailor the browser extension through policy keys such as Q_BIZ_BROWSER_EXTENSION_URL, Q_BIZ_BROWSER_EXTENSION_LOGO, and Q_BIZ_BROWSER_EXTENSION_ENTERPRISE_NAME. The URL policy can provide a default web experience URL; the LOGO policy can replace the toolbar icon with a custom image; and the ENTERPRISE_NAME policy can replace references to terms like “Amazon Q” or “AWS” with an enterprise-approved name in the extension window.
• The extension is accessible via the Chrome and Firefox store pages, with installation guided by in-app prompts when users sign in.

Key takeaways

• The browser extension integrates AI-assisted workflows directly into common browsing environments, reducing context-switching and accelerating decision making.
• It enables context-aware, cross-source insights by allowing page content to be attached to prompts (in General knowledge mode) and combining internal data with external sources.
• Governance and customization are supported through enterprise policies for URLs, logos, and display naming, enabling organizations to align the tool with corporate branding and access controls.
• The extension relies on the Amazon Q Business web experience for authentication and session management, with clear privacy controls and a defined retention period for conversations. AWS ML Blog.

References

• https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/machine-learning/supercharge-your-organizations-productivity-with-the-amazon-q-business-browser-extension/