Web AI agents such as ChatGPT Agent and GenSpark are increasingly used for routine web-based tasks, yet they still rely on text-based input prompts, lack proactive detection of user intent, and offer no support for interactive data analysis and decision making. We present WebSeek, a mixed-initiative browser extension that enables users to discover and extract information from webpages to then flexibly build, transform, and refine tangible data artifacts-such as tables, lists, and visualizations-all within an interactive canvas. Within this environment, users can perform analysis-including data transformations such as joining tables or creating visualizations-while an in-built AI both proactively offers context-aware guidance and automation, and reactively responds to explicit user requests. An exploratory user study (N=15) with WebSeek as a probe reveals participants' diverse analysis strategies, underscoring their desire for transparency and control during human-AI collaboration.

翻译：诸如ChatGPT Agent与GenSpark等网络人工智能代理正日益应用于常规网络任务，然而它们仍依赖基于文本的输入提示，缺乏对用户意图的主动检测，且无法支持交互式数据分析与决策。本文提出WebSeek——一种混合主动式的浏览器扩展工具，使用户能够从网页中发现并提取信息，进而在交互式画布中灵活构建、转换与优化具象化数据制品（如表格、列表及可视化图表）。在此环境中，用户可执行包括连接表格、创建可视化等数据转换操作在内的分析任务，同时内置人工智能既能主动提供情境感知的引导与自动化支持，也能被动响应用户的显式请求。以WebSeek为探针的探索性用户研究（N=15）揭示了参与者多样化的分析策略，并凸显了在人机协作过程中他们对透明度与控制权的迫切需求。