Why 99% Accurate Browser Agents Still Fail — Derek Meegan, Browserbase

This talk addresses the critical challenge of reliability for browser agents in production, particularly for long trajectories. It highlights that a 99% per-step accuracy compounds to a low success rate over many steps. The core contribution is a production architecture that mitigates this by: 1. Using deterministic tools for predictable browser interactions. 2. Employing OCR verification for robust content validation. 3. Separating authentication to prevent agent failure. 4. Utilizing 'skills' as standard operating procedures to keep agents on the critical path. The talk emphasizes measuring success per transaction rather than per run and prioritizing performance, cost, and maintainability as engineering problems.