[AI in DevTools] How To Use AI in Chrome DevTools

You’ve built your latest website using powerful AI tools. It looks great, but what happens when you need to debug it? Manually tracing CSS issues, deciphering console errors, and optimizing performance can eat up hours.

What if I told you that the solution is already in your browser, hidden in plain sight?

Google has secretly integrated powerful AI features directly into Chrome DevTools. This isn’t just a minor update; it’s a paradigm shift that allows you to debug and optimize your websites using AI, making the process faster and more intuitive.

In this step-by-step guide, I’ll show you how to unlock and use these hidden AI innovations.

Step 1: How to Enable AI in Chrome DevTools

Before you can use these powerful features, you need to switch them on. Here’s how:

1. Open Chrome Browser.
2. Right-click on any webpage and select “Inspect” to open DevTools.
3. Inside DevTools, click on the Settings gear icon (usually in the top-right corner).
4. Navigate to the Experiments or “AI Innovations” section in the settings panel.
5. Enable the following options:
   • Console Insights
   • AI Assistance
   • Auto Annotations

Troubleshooting Tip: If you don’t see these options, ensure you are:

• Signed into Chrome with your personal Gmail account.
• If you’re on a Google Workspace account, your administrator may have disabled these experimental features. You may need to contact them to enable it.

Step 2: Using AI Console Insights to Understand Errors

Once enabled, the AI can instantly explain errors and even suggest fixes.

1. Navigate to the “Console” tab in DevTools.
2. If there’s an error or warning, look for a small sparkle icon or text that says “Understand this error.”
3. Click on it. The AI will generate a plain-English explanation of the error and, crucially, provide a code snippet to fix it.
4. You can copy this code directly. If the solution isn’t perfect, click “Use search instead” to open a detailed Google search with an AI overview on a new tab.

This turns cryptic error messages from a puzzle into a solvable problem in seconds.

Step 3: Chat with Your Elements Using AI Assistance

This is where it gets futuristic. You can now interact with any page element using natural language.

1. Inspect any element on the page (e.g., a button or a div).
2. Hover over the selected element in the Elements panel. You will see a small chat icon appear.
3. Click the icon to open the AI Assistance panel. Notice that the AI already has the context of the selected DOM element.
4. Start giving instructions! For example, type: “Please change the background color to red and the text color to white.”
5. The AI will analyze your prompt and ask for permission to execute the code. Click “Continue.”

You will see the changes applied live in the browser. The AI panel will show you the exact CSS code it used, which you can then copy and paste into your source files.

Step 4: Debug Performance with AI

Beyond styling, the AI can help you identify and fix performance bottlenecks.

1. Go to the “Performance” tab in DevTools.
2. Click the “Refresh” button to record a performance profile of the page loading.
3. Once recorded, look for sections like the “LCP Breakdown” (Largest Contentful Paint). You will see a new “Debug with AI” button.
4. Click it and ask questions like:
   • “Help me optimize my LCP score.”
   • “Which LCP phase was most problematic?”
   • “How can I optimize this?”

The AI will analyze the performance trace, pinpoint the most significant issues, and suggest actionable code improvements to speed up your website.

Conclusion:

Chrome’s built-in AI tools represent a massive leap forward for web developers. By integrating AI directly into the debugging workflow, Google is helping us move faster from problem to solution.

You no longer have to choose between building with AI and debugging manually. Now, you can do both with the power of AI.

What’s your favorite new AI feature? Let me know in the comments!