AI-powered search engine Perplexity has launched an “agent,” of types, referred to as Perplexity Assistant, which Perplexity says makes use of reasoning, search, and apps to assist with day by day duties.
Perplexity Assistant, which is obtainable for Android units as of Thursday within the Perplexity app, can take “multi-app actions,” the corporate says, like hailing a journey or trying to find a track.
As a result of Perplexity’s search engine powers it, Perplexity Assistant has entry to the online. That permits the assistant to do issues like remind you of an occasion by discovering the proper date and time and making a calendar entry, Perplexity says.
Perplexity Assistant is multimodal within the sense that it will probably use your cellphone’s digicam to reply questions on what’s round you or in your display screen. The assistant additionally maintains context from one motion to a different, letting you, for instance, have Perplexity Assistant analysis eating places in your space and reserve a desk robotically, Perplexity says.
We’re excited to launch the Perplexity Assistant to all Android customers. This marks the transition for Perplexity from a solution engine to a natively built-in assistant that may name different apps and carry out primary duties for you. Replace or set up Perplexity app on Play Retailer. pic.twitter.com/FSRDLtVWzB
— Aravind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas) January 23, 2025
Perplexity Assistant will initially be free for Perplexity customers in 15 languages, together with English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Hindi.
Whereas this product sounds nice in concept, Perplexity launched half-baked merchandise prior to now. For example, our testing discovered that Perplexity’s procuring characteristic, designed to let customers place an order with out going to a retailer’s web site, tended to be sluggish and error-prone.
Listed here are a couple of extra examples of what Perplexity Assistant can do. We will’t wait to see how you employ it.
Get it right here: https://t.co/H4J9cr68So pic.twitter.com/F7ibSFfrgq
— Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) January 23, 2025
Srinivas famous in a put up on X that some Perplexity Assistant actions “[might] not all the time work,” however that Perplexity plans to “tackle [these issues] over the following few months.”
The launch of Perplexity Assistant comes simply days after Perplexity rolled out Sonar, an API service that lets enterprises and builders construct the corporate’s generative AI search instruments into their very own purposes and acquired a social media platform for professionals referred to as Learn.cv.
Based in 2022, Perplexity has reportedly raised over $500 million in capital from VCs and is claimed to be valued at $9 billion.
Perplexity is rising quickly. The AI-powered search engine is performing over 100 million queries every week because it expands monetization efforts like its promoting program.
A thorn in Perplexity’s facet, nonetheless, is its authorized tussles with publishers. Information Corp’s Dow Jones and the NY Put up have sued Perplexity over what they describe as a “content material kleptocracy.” Many different information websites have expressed considerations that Perplexity carefully replicates their content material — simply in October, The New York Occasions despatched the startup a stop and desist.
Perplexity, which provides a revenue-sharing program for shops, has stated that it respects writer content material.