Perplexity AI Launches Shopping Features, Challenging Traditional Search and E-commerce Giants

Perplexity's Shopping Assistant is a Killer

California-based conversational search engine Perplexity is taking a step ahead with its new upgrade, introducing new shopping features that go beyond traditional search capabilities. CEO Aravind Srinivas believes Perplexity can be India's AI app. His recent tweet suggested market potential for the search engine in India, which, if implemented, would have interesting vernacular use cases. While Perplexity doesn't possess its own foundational LLM, the company asserts that it provides substantial value. It currently manages over 100 million queries weekly with the goal of scaling to 100 million queries daily. Srinivas has been bullish about expanding the company's presence. In India, many founders and developers are already building on existing LLMs creating value at the application layer. This comes after Perplexity launched a new shopping feature for its pro users in the US, where users can research and purchase products. The AI commerce experience, 'Buy with Pro', lets users check out pick products from select merchants on the website or app, and place their order. Additionally, a visual search tool called 'Snap to Shop' displays relevant products, only requiring shoppers to take a photo of the product they wish to purchase. Srinivas took to X to share how the platform is evolving from a research tool to one that is revolutionising commerce. "I don't quite think it's the ChatGPT moment for shopping. But I think the future is looking bright for customers to find and buy what they want much faster without ads and spam. Some more work needs to be done to feel true magic. We're on it," he said, highlighting his focus on removing ads and spam for a cleaner, user-friendly shopping experience. With this new feature, Perplexity competes with Google's lens feature, Amazon's Rufus assistant, and Walmart's GenAI recommendation tool, but reportedly stands out by offering direct purchasing through its search engine. This strategy highlights the increasing adoption of generative AI to improve product discovery and streamline e-commerce transactions, and Perplexity is determined to stay ahead in this space. The new shopping feature comes amid intensifying competition in the search market, after OpenAI's recent announcement of its 'SearchGPT' integration into ChatGPT. The company has been steadily expanding its capabilities by adding new features like Perplexity Spaces, a finance analysis tool, an internal file search engine, and advanced reasoning mode. Perplexity has introduced innovative ways to streamline information during key events. During NVIDIA's earnings call yesterday, 'Perplexity Finance' offered live transcripts and key highlights, which will soon expand to major stocks. A similar real-time experiment was done for the US elections, where Perplexity partnered with The Associated Press and Democracy Works to create an election information hub that included live updates, real-time vote counts, and personalised ballot details. Srinivas expressed disappointment over traditional news websites lacking proper coverage. Perplexity is often touted as a GPT wrapper. Commenting on the nature of wrappers on the value addition aspect, Srinivas further said, "Wrappers are at all levels; it's just that they have given you so much value that you do not care." Amazon chief Jeff Bezos has invested in Perplexity AI, showing his confidence in its potential to innovate AI search. Even NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang praised the tool, revealing he uses it "almost every day" for its practical benefits. Notably, Meta's chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, who strongly advocates ethical and moral AI practices, was involved in the company's early funding rounds. Even at an event at Carnegie Mellon University, the host used Perplexity AI to create questions for Google CEO Sundar Pichai. On competing with players like Google today, Srinivas said, "Every single query on Perplexity, on average, has 10-11 words. Every query on Google has about two to three words, so users have much higher intent with each query, allowing them to ask more targeted questions." Reports suggest that Perplexity is also preparing to raise funds at a valuation of $9 billion, which would be its fourth round this year. This funding will help Perplexity expand into newer markets and fight its legal battles. In August, Perplexity signed a revenue-sharing deal with publishers like TIME, Der Spiegel, and Fortune after plagiarism allegations. It soon faced lawsuits from News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, for copyright violations, and The New York Times for AI scraping, intensifying financial pressures amid growing plagiarism disputes. Srinivas criticised News Corp's lawsuit, calling it a counterproductive and unnecessary conflict between media and tech, urging collaboration to create innovative tools and expand business opportunities.

AI startup Perplexity adds shopping features as search competition tightens

(Reuters) - Artificial intelligence search startup Perplexity on Monday launched a shopping hub to attract users, in a bid to beef up its platform as it attempts to take on Alphabet-owned Google's dominance in the search engine space. The firm, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and leading AI chipmaker Nvidia, will give users product cards showing relevant items in response to questions related to shopping. Each card provides product details in a visual format, the company said. The new feature is powered by platform integrations including Shopify, which gives access to recent and relevant information on products from businesses on the Canadian e-commerce platform globally that ship to the United States. E-commerce platforms have focused on employing more AI-powered tools in an effort to pull in more merchants. Perplexity's online shopping-focused rollout includes 'Snap to Shop' - a visual search tool that shows products based on users' photos of an item. The features are first launching in the United States and will later expand to other markets, the timeline for which was not specified. Perplexity is also introducing a 'Merchant Program' to allow retailers to share product information with the company. The startup is raising new investment that would value it at $9 billion, Reuters had reported earlier in November. Perplexity has been looking to expand its offerings, with OpenAI now a direct competitor after the generative AI pioneer added a set of new search functions to ChatGPT. (Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)

Perplexity AI Will Now Let You Purchase Products on Its Search Engine

Perplexity said it will provide 'unbiased' product recommendations Perplexity added two new features to its platform on Monday to offer users a new shopping experience. The artificial intelligence (AI) search engine is rolling out 'Buy with Pro' and 'Snap to Shop' features for paying subscribers. With the former, Perplexity Pro users can now purchase products directly on the platform after asking for recommendations. The latter is similar to Google Lens and allows users to capture an image of a product and share it with the AI search engine to find a match. In a blog post, the AI firm detailed the two new features. Both of these AI commerce features are currently available to Perplexity Pro users in the US. Buy with Pro will allow users to run a query about a specific product or product recommendations for a particular scenario. When the results show, users will also see a curated list of recommended products that they can purchase with a single click. Users will first have to add shipping and billing information on Perplexity's portal. Once that is done, they can click on the Buy with Pro button next to the products to directly make a purchase without having to leave the app. The company is also offering free shipping on all orders made on the platform. In case Buy with Pro is not available for a product, the AI firm says it will redirect the user to the merchant's website. Alongside this, the company is also introducing a Snap to Shop feature. Just like Google Lens, users can use this feature to point their smartphone's camera at a product and run a search on it. The AI will either find the exact match or similar products, which can then be purchased using the Buy with Pro button. Perplexity says this feature is aimed at times when one does not know the name of the product or can think of its description. On the retailer side, the AI firm has started the Perplexity Merchant Programme which allows retailers to share product specifications and similar data with the AI firm without paying anything. The company is also offering payment integrations and free application programming interface (API) access to let them create a seamless experience for buyers. Recently, AI commerce has emerged as a new online shopping experience for buyers. With this, the AI streamlines and automates processes such as product discovery, customer support, setting dynamic pricing, AI assistants to answer product queries and more. Amazon's Rufus AI, Shopify Magic, and Salesforce's Einstein AI are some examples of tools enabling AI commerce.

Perplexity AI Is Now a Shopping Assistant

Perplexity is rolling out a new "Buy with Pro" feature that allows its Pro subscribers paying $20 per month to complete purchases within its AI-powered search engine. When searching for products on Perplexity, users will now see recommendations in the form of product cards. Some of these cards will contain the new "Buy with Pro" button, which Pro subscribers can use to check out using the saved shipping and billing details. All orders placed through the new button will come with free shipping. However, there are some limitations. At launch, "Buy with Pro" is exclusive to US users and only supports select products from select merchants. If a product doesn't show a "Buy with Pro" link, Perplexity will redirect the user to the merchant's website for checkout instead. Perplexity is also rolling out "Snap to Shop," which functions like Google Lens or Apple's visual intelligence. You take a photo of an item, upload it to the AI search engine, and can find similar products available for sale online. Perplexity's AI will also provide product comparisons. The AI startup, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, won't earn any commissions from the sales, company spokesperson Sara Platnick confirmed to The Verge. The product recommendations aren't sponsored, either. "They're unbiased recommendations tailored to your search by our AI," Perplexity says. These shopping experiences are powered by various integrations including Shopify, which gives the AI product information from Shopify-powered businesses that take US-based customers. While these tools are initially limited to US users, Perplexity has promised to expand them to other markets in the future. Perplexity has also launched the Perplexity Merchant program. This initiative allows merchants to share their product details for free on the platform, increasing the AI's product catalog and potentially increase sales. AI has been increasingly infused into the world of e-commerce in recent years. Amazon has its chatbot Rufus, along with AI-powered Amazon listings. Ebay also lets you use its built-in AI to generate product descriptions. But AI doesn't always get it right. It's been used to "shop" for items in images -- including in those depicting tragedies and suicide victims. And Rufus has been criticized by many users for not offering appropriate or accurate questions or descriptions, having a user interface that blocks important info, and for regurgitating user reviews. AI can certainly make online selling and shopping faster -- but it may not always be better.

Perplexity introduces a shopping feature for Pro users in the U.S.

AI-powered search engine Perplexity is venturing into e-commerce. On Monday, the company debuted a new shopping feature for its paid customers in the U.S. which offers shopping recommendations within Perplexity's search results as well as the ability to place an order without going to a retailer's website. With the move, Perplexity is taking on Google and Amazon, intending to capture a portion of shopping search results. For shopping-related search queries, the tool presents users with visual cards that have details of the product, pricing, and seller info, a short description, and the pros and cons of the item in question. Users can click or tap on the card to read more information, including reviews and detailed key features. Consumers can also store their address and credit card details in Perplexity for easy checkout. The company says it calculates taxes for your address, so you can purchase an item with one click. The company said Pro subscribers will get free shipping for items purchased through its one-click checkout system. For now, the search engine's recommendations are "unbiased" as there are no sponsored slots, Perplexity notes. The new search experience is powered by integrations with sellers' sites, including those on Shopify. The latter unlocks information on all sellers using Shopify who are shipping items in the U.S. The feature also provides a way for users to search by adding a photo of an item that they want along with their query. This is similar to Google which has also offered various iterations of a product that allows you to combine images and text in a search box. Alongside the launch of its shopping tools, Perplexity is introducing a merchant program. If merchants enroll in this program, they'll have a better chance of being a recommended product because the company will have more complete information in its index. People can also use a one-click checkout to buy items from the company's merchant partners, the company said. Merchants will have free API access to power search on their own websites, as well, which could help Perplexity gain market share in this space. The company said it's not taking an affiliate cut from user purchases at the moment. Plus, it clarified that the shopping feature is separate from its ads product, which was introduced last week. Opportunity with AI search in shopping Apart from Big Tech, startups like Daydream, Deft, and Remark have also raised millions of dollars from venture capitalists to build AI-powered shopping searches. Amazon debuted AI-powered assistant Rufus earlier this year in the U.S. and expanded to other countries late last month. After its Prime Day sales event in July, the company noted that Rufus helped "millions" of customers find the right items. Google also primed its Shopping tab with AI in October for better search results. With the onset of large language models, companies working in the e-commerce industry have realized that there is an opportunity to suggest better options as these models can parse user queries and match items from the catalog using organized and unorganized data. The promise of this new wave of search is that e-commerce search has been bad for years, but now you can write long sentences to describe an item you need, and AI will do the work for you. These companies are also betting on the fact that AI will help you find an item quickly, and you won't need to spend a lot of time looking for something. But this premise comes with an implicit caveat: You should trust the limited search results that AI tools serve you. To build trust, the companies providing these tools will have to make sure to remove implicit bias and preferential treatment before regulators intervene.

Perplexity Integrates Search With New AI-Powered Shopping Features

Merchant Program: Tools for retailers to optimise visibility and product data sharing. Perplexity AI is rolling out a new feature it calls a first-of-its-kind AI commerce experience, enabling its Pro subscribers to purchase products without leaving its AI search engine. When searching for a product on Perplexity, Pro members can now select a "Buy with Pro" button to order the product using saved shipping and billing information. "Perplexity is now a one-stop solution where you can research and purchase products. It marks a big leap forward in how we serve our users - empowering seamless native actions right from an answer. Shopping online just got 10x more easy and fun," said Perplexity in a blog post. Also Read: Perplexity Launches AI-Powered Election Information Hub for US Available to Perplexity Pro users in the US, this feature provides a seamless checkout experience directly on the Perplexity platform for select products and merchants. Users can save shipping and billing information and enjoy free shipping on all "Buy with Pro" orders. If the feature is unavailable for a specific product, users are redirected to the merchant's website to complete the purchase, the company explained. Another tool announced by the company is the new Snap to Shop feature. This visual search tool allows users to find relevant products by simply snapping a photo. Particularly useful when users don't know the name or description of an item, the company said. Also Read: Dow Jones, New York Post Sue Perplexity AI for Copyright Infringement: Report Perplexity says that when users ask a shopping question, they will receive precise, objective answers accompanied by AI-curated, easy-to-read product cards showcasing the most relevant items. These cards include key details presented in a simple, visual format. "These cards aren't sponsored - they're unbiased recommendations tailored to your search by our AI," according to the company. The company says the new discovery experience is powered by platform integrations including Shopify, which gives access to the most recent and relevant product information from Shopify-powered businesses worldwide that sell and ship to the US. "You no longer have to scroll through countless product reviews. Perplexity gives you comparisons in clear, everyday language, so you can narrow down the best choices quickly and confidently," Perplexity said. The shopping experience will initially launch in the US, with plans to expand to new markets and introduce additional features and offers in the future. Also Read: Telefonica's Wayra Invests in AI Startup Perplexity, Signs Commercial Agreement To improve and scale the shopping experience, Perplexity said it is also launching a Merchant Program, designed to make it easy for large retailers to share their product specifications with the company. This ensures Perplexity can access live details on the best available products. Joining the Perplexity Merchant Program offers benefits, including increased chances of being featured as a "recommended product," payment integration options, free API access, and a custom dashboard that provides merchants with insights into search and shopping trends.

Perplexity's new AI feature might kill e-commerce as we know it

Perplexity has unveiled a very interesting shopping feature for Pro subscribers in the U.S. that allows users to make purchases directly from its AI-powered search engine. This new functionality enables Pro members to click a "Buy with Pro" button when they search for a product, automatically processing their orders using pre-stored shipping and billing details. The feature is designed to streamline the shopping experience by removing the need to visit external retailer websites. Perplexity's initiative targets users looking for convenience and efficiency in online shopping. Pro subscribers, who pay $20 per month, will benefit from free shipping on all products purchased through this feature. For items that are not compatible with the "Buy with Pro" function, users will be redirected to the retailer's site to complete their orders. In the shopping-related search results, Perplexity will display product cards that include images, pricing, and AI-generated summaries of key features and reviews. Video: Perplexity To enhance its e-commerce capabilities, Perplexity is also rolling out a new AI-driven "Snap to Shop" search tool. This feature allows all users to take a photo of a product and ask relevant questions about it, effectively simplifying the search process. Initially, only Pro users will have access to this tool, but it revolves around offering a more interactive shopping experience akin to Google Lens. Perplexity aims to position itself as a competitor to established giants like Google and Amazon. The updated product cards will allow users to view pros and cons of items, alongside basic product details. This function is expected to provide a richer information experience, benefiting users who desire more than just a standard list of search results. By integrating with merchants' websites, particularly those using Shopify, Perplexity will be able to offer more accurate information and broaden its index of available products. With an ambition to support merchants, Perplexity is introducing a merchant program designed to furnish sellers with insights into prevalent search and shopping trends. Enrollment in this program increases a merchant's likelihood of being recommended on the platform. Merchants will also gain free API access to enhance search functionality on their own websites, which could bolster Perplexity's market position in e-commerce. FTC is hunting Amazon and judge approves it The search engine emphasizes that its shopping feature remains unbiased and free from sponsored content, as confirmed by a spokesperson. Current functionality allows users to store their address and payment information securely for one-click purchases. This seamless process may revolutionize how consumers manage online shopping while also ensuring a more straightforward checkout experience. As competition ramps up among tech companies integrating AI into shopping experiences, Perplexity is not the only player. Companies including Amazon and various startups are developing their own AI-powered shopping solutions, aiming to harness the capabilities of large language models to improve search outcomes. Google, for instance, recently enhanced its Shopping tab with AI features targeted at providing personalized recommendations.

Perplexity launches shopping feature for its subscription service

Disclaimer: This content generated by AI & may have errors or hallucinations. Edit before use. Read our Terms of use Artificial intelligence (AI) search engine Perplexity has launched a series of new shopping features. One of these features, called 'Snap to Shop', allows users to take a picture of an item, and search for the item using Perplexity, similar to how they would search for items using Google Lens. This is a part of Perplexity's paid subscription plan Perplexity Pro. Users can get product listings for the items they search for using 'Snap to Shop', and buy the product without leaving the search engine. Besides Snap to Shop, Perplexity Pro can also give people product listings based on specific prompts, so for instance, if you are looking for furnishings for a home office, the search engine will find your individual product listings of the items you need. Further, it picks up reviews from all over the internet and summarises them for the users to help them easily pick between different product listings. In August this year, Perplexity signed a revenue-sharing agreement with news publishers such as TIME, Der Spiegel, Fortune, Entrepreneur, and The Texas Tribune and WordPress.com after allegations that it plagiarised news content. Soon after, the company saw lawsuits from the News Corp (made up of publications like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post) and also the New York Times for copyright violations and AI scrapping, respectively. As more and more companies continue to challenge Perplexity on grounds of plagiarism, the company needs finances to fund both its legal battles and potential revenue share agreements, making it necessary for it to wind ways to monetise its content. Perplexity's shopping feature launches also come as tech companies are racing to look for ways to monetise their AI offerings. Recently, Google monetised its AI overviews by placing ads relevant to the user query and the response within the Overview section. So far, the company has rolled out these advertisements for its mobile users in the US. The company has also expanded on Google Lens functionality through its “advanced AI models" to give users information about any product they look up, including reviews and price comparisons.

Perplexity now lets you buy stuff directly in the AI search engine

Buy, buy, buy with Perplexity's AI shopping assistant. Credit: Perplexity Perplexity searches are now shoppable with a Perplexity Pro subscription. Today, the AI-driven search engine unveiled "Buy with Pro," a shopping assistant within Perplexity searches that gives you a one-click shopping experience. If you're researching products, or some kind of shopping-related query, Perplexity includes products in its responses that can be bought on the page -- as long as your payment info is saved in the app. Search results include relevant product info to inform your purchases by comparing prices and features. To sweeten the deal, Perplexity is also offering free shipping. Buy with Pro is available with a Perplexity Pro subscription, which costs $20 a month. But notably, Perplexity doesn't earn a commission from purchases like Google Shopping -- for now. "We have no concrete plans to introduce affiliate revenue," said Perplexity spokesperson Sara Platnick. "But it's also not off the table." At least for now, it sounds like a way to entice Perplexity users to upgrade to Pro. Perplexity has gained attention as competitor to Google and OpenAI by offering a combination of AI-generated and real-time responses from the web. It's like a hybrid of Google Gemini and Google's AI overviews or OpenAI's new ChatGPT Search. However, like other generative AI chatbots trained on publicly available content, it has faced accusations of violating copyright and trademark laws. While Perplexity battles infringement lawsuits, it is charging forward with monetizing AI-powered search results. It's not an AI agent, as in, it doesn't perform multi-step tasks -- a feature that's shaping up to be a big theme in the coming year. But shoppable search results could be a stepping stone to this autonomous feature that companies like Google and OpenAI are expected to launch soon. In conjunction with the AI shopping assistant, Perplexity also announced a Merchant Program for retailers to share product specs with the app. In turn, participating merchants will get an increased chance of product recommendations and purchasing data about their products. Perplexity isn't sharing specific user browsing habits with merchants, Platnick confirmed to Mashable.

Perplexity's new shopping tool offers 'unbiased recommendations' | Digital Trends

AI startup Perplexity has launched a new shopping feature that it describes as a "one-stop solution where you can research and purchase products." Available initially for U.S.-based users of its paid Pro subscription tier before expanding soon internationally, Perplexity Shopping is a shot across the bows of rival services like Google and Amazon as the company seeks to attract more users to its AI chatbot while building out related services like search and online shopping. Recommended Videos "You can use it to research and make purchases on all things like building your library, buying electronics for throwing a party, and so on," the San Francisco-based company said in a thread on X that also included a short video (below) showing the new feature in action. Introducing Perplexity Shopping: a one-stop solution where you can research and purchase products. It marks a big leap forward in how we serve our users - empowering seamless native actions right from an answer. Shopping online just got 10x more easy and fun. pic.twitter.com/gjMZO6VIzQ — Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) November 18, 2024 The video shows how you can enter queries in a conversational way, just as you would with any other AI chatbot. It also lets you refine results via follow-up responses like, "Under $100." Perplexity Shopping includes features such as a one-click checkout designed to save you time by having purchases fully processed within the app instead of being transferred across to the merchant's site. "Just save your shipping and billing information through our secure portal and select 'Buy with Pro' to place your order," the company explained, adding that all Buy with Pro orders come with free shipping. In cases where Buy with Pro isn't available, you will be redirected to the merchant's website to complete the purchase. The new tool also includes a Snap to Shop visual search tool that shows you relevant products in response to any images that you upload, helping you to find an item even when you don't have a name for it. In an apparent swipe at Google, Perplexity points out that its shopping suggestions aren't sponsored, describing its results as "unbiased recommendations" that are powered by AI and based on in-platform reviews. "When you ask Perplexity a shopping question, you'll still get the precise, objective answers you expect, plus easy-to-read product cards showing the most relevant items, along with key details presented in a simple, visual format." Away from shopping, however, Perplexity recently revealed that it will start inserting ads into its general chatbot responses for users in the U.S. in the form of "sponsored follow-up questions and paid media positioned to the side of an answer."

Perplexity Launches AI-Powered Shopping Assistant That Can Research and Purchase | PYMNTS.com

With the company's new Buy With Pro, shoppers can both research and purchase products, Perplexity said in a Monday (Nov. 18) blog post. "It marks a big leap forward in how we serve our users -- empowering seamless native actions right from an answer," the company said in the post. "Shopping online just got 10x more easy and fun." Available to Perplexity Pro users in the U.S., Buy With Pro lets users check out on the company's website or app for select products from select merchants, according to the post. When users save their shipping and billing information to Perplexity's portal and select Buy With Pro to place the order, they can save time with one-click checkout, the post said. If Buy With Pro is not available, Perplexity will direct the user to the merchant's website to complete their purchase, per the post. Perplexity also offers a visual search tool called Snap to Shop that helps users find what they are looking for by taking a photo of the item; Snap to Shop will display relevant products based on the photo, with no need for a product description or name, according to the post. The company's discovery experience is powered by integrations with platforms like Shopify, per the post. "When you ask Perplexity a shopping question, you'll still get the precise, objective answers you expect, plus easy-to-read product cards showing the most relevant items, along with key details presented in a simple, visual format," the post said. "These cards aren't sponsored -- they're unbiased recommendations, tailored to your search by our AI." It was reported Nov. 5 that Perplexity is set to triple its valuation from a few months ago as it raises $500 million in its fourth funding round this year. This would value the company at $9 billion after starting the year with a valuation of $520 million.

Perplexity's AI search engine can now buy products for you

Perplexity is rolling out a new feature that will let Pro subscribers purchase a product without leaving its AI search engine. When searching for a product using Perplexity, Pro members based in the US can now choose a "Buy with Pro" button that will automatically order the product using saved shipping and billing information. Perplexity says all products purchased through Buy with Pro come with free shipping. For products that don't support Buy with Pro, Perplexity will redirect users to the merchant's website to complete their purchase. When asked whether Perplexity gets any kickback from sales made through its Buy with Pro button, Perplexity spokesperson Sara Platnick said, "As of now, we do not," adding that "there's no commercial element" to the feature. Users who aren't subscribed to Perplexity's $20 / month Pro option will still see other updated AI shopping features, including new product cards that will appear for product-related searches. For users in the US, these cards show a product image and its price, along with AI-written summaries of key features and reviews. Perplexity is also launching a new AI-powered "Snap to Shop" search tool that will let all users take a picture of a product and ask questions about it, similar to Google Lens. This feature will only be available to Pro users at launch. Perplexity also already lets Pro users make visual searches unrelated to shopping. It seems that Perplexity is looking to expand shopping tools for merchants as well. The company is rolling out a new merchant program that will give sellers "insights into search and shopping trends that surface their products." It also increases the chance that Perplexity will recommend their products.

Perplexity AI's new shopping assistant is ready to tackle your holiday gift list

Get the shopping help you need, and other perks, right in time for the holidays with Perplexity's new tool. AI search engines combine the conversational capabilities of chatbots with the web, creating a new, optimized search experience. Despite their proficiency in research, AI search engines fall short in certain areas, such as online shopping. However, Perplexity hopes to change that with this new feature. Also: The best AI chatbots of 2024: ChatGPT, Copilot, and worthy alternatives On Monday, Perplexity is rolling out what the company is calling a "first-of-its-kind AI commerce experience" in which users can research products via conversational prompts and image inputs, checkout with one click, and even get free shopping on all purchases. The biggest difference between a traditional shopping search experience and Perplexity's shopping assistant is that when you ask a shopping-related question, you get comparisons in everyday language that feature a variety of reviews, "objective" answers, and product cards with the most relevant specs and items, according to the company. Also: Amazon's AI Shopping Guides help you find what you need The items featured on the product cards are not sponsored but are handpicked by AI to match the search prompt. Users also have the option of Snap to Shop; which allows users to take a photo of an item and ask Perplexity to visually find relevant products that match, similar to Google Lens. Using Buy with Pro, consumers can checkout with one click, requiring users to save their shipping and billing information just once. Other benefits of Perplexity Pro include access to at least 300 Pro Searches a day, a more robust search experience, access to the most popular and advanced AI models, including GPT-4o and Claude 3 Sonnet and Opus; API credit; and file analysis. Also: Perplexity AI's new tool makes researching the stock market 'delightful'. Here's how The experience comes at a cost, retailing at $20 per month. Although subscriptions may seem steep, it does guarantee free shipping on all Buy with Pro purchases, which may help you get your money's worth quickly. If Buy with Pro isn't available, users will be redirected to the merchant's website to complete the purchase. Perplexity shares that the shopping experience is powered by multiple partners, including Shopify, which provides Perplexity with the latest product information. Additionally, the company is introducing a free Perplexity Merchant Program, which allows merchants to share their product specs for the latest live details in the experience. Signing up is as easy as filling out the form.

Perplexity adds AI-assisted shopping features

The firm, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and leading AI chipmaker Nvidia, will give users product cards showing relevant items in response to questions related to shopping. Each card provides product details in a visual format, the company said. The new feature is powered by platform integrations including Shopify, which gives access to recent and relevant information on products from businesses on the Canadian e-commerce platform globally that ship to the United States.

Perplexity's AI shopping recommendations are here but its CEO doesn't know how they're chosen

The new tools, announced Monday, are part of a major push by Perplexity to be more of a one-stop hub for users and turn the 100 million weekly search queries it handles into a business. The effort marks yet another effort by the company to challenge search leader Google, which has been adding AI-powered shopping tools to its search results in recent months. Perplexity users who enter a query in the new search experience, such as "What's the highest-rated coffee machine under $500?," are shown a top product recommendation as a response, along with a short summary explaining its positive attributes. Below that, the AI system displays a few rectangular tiles, each displaying another recommended product with key information like a product's image and pricing. In some cases, shoppers will be able to easily buy one of the recommended items after a couple of taps through an integration with the e-commerce software company Shopify and its Shop Pay checkout system. For users of Perplexity Pro subscription, the company offers the ability to complete a purchase directly within the AI search engine, and get free shipping, as well. But for merchants, retailers, and brands -- or even consumers -- that want to understand how the company's AI decides which products to recommend, the startup's CEO bluntly admitted he doesn't have the answer. At least not yet. "All these things are yet to be fully understood, to be very honest with you, in terms of how the ranking works [and why] the AI is preferring to rank one over the other," Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas told Fortune in an exclusive interview on Monday. "Is it the number of reviews? Is it the ratings exactly and where the rankings are coming from -- like what people are saying on different platforms about their product? There's a lot of distillation and condensing going on here." "I think we don't understand it fully ourselves today," he added, echoing the comments of executives at many other companies about the results their AI produces. The goal and expectation, though, is that Perplexity will eventually get there, the CEO said. In the example of a query shared in Monday's press announcement -- about the sub-$500 coffee machine -- the results highlight the "Breville Bambino Plus" espresso machine as the top choice, along with a few bullet points explaining the decision. Perplexity then features a product tile displaying key attributes of the merchandise, along with similar product cards for two other "recommended products" that cost nearly the same. Some users may find such a result slightly off target. Technically, a coffee machine isn't the same thing as an espresso machine. The product card for the Breville brand top choice has a link to Best Buy where shoppers can get more details. It also shows a "Buy With Pro" button that lets Perplexity Pro users enter their shipping and credit card info, and purchase the item through Perplexity. Best Buy, however, is not actually partnering with Perplexity in this example. Rather, the startup is placing the order with Best Buy on the customer's behalf, and then covering any shipping cost as an incentive for shoppers to try out the new Perplexity shopping tools. While search platforms like Google and Pinterest both previously experimented with letting their users complete some purchases directly on their platforms, both internet giants eventually shuttered those capabilities, partly because retailers don't like being disintermediated. Perplexity is simultaneously opening up a merchant program that it hopes will help it build direct relationships with big retailers to feed their product data into the AI system and potentially let Perplexity users buy their goods directly within the search engine. Srinivas said his startup won't take a cut, or commissions, on any resulting sales. While Srinivas said he doesn't fully understand how his company's AI system steers shoppers to certain products, it seems that one factor in particular may play a role. Retailers that provide data to Perplexity as part of its new free merchant program will earn "Increased chances of being a 'recommended product' because the products will be in our index, and when we have more robust details, we can better determine if a product is high quality and relevant to a user's query," Monday's press release says. Perplexity recently announced an experiment with advertising for its core search product in the form of sponsored "follow-up questions" -- related questions that the AI system generates and displays below a search result meant to prod users to dig deeper into a topic. "Integrating sponsored questions into the shopping experience is a natural choice for us to explore," he told Fortune. "It could become a very cool way to generate demand and fulfill it right there." However, retailers and brands won't be able to pay to have their products recommended, Srinivas said. (Fortune is a member of the Perplexity Publishers' Program. As part of the program, the startup shares ad revenue with publications when their content is used or referenced in a Perplexity answer to a sponsored question.) The new shopping assistant-style experience comes as existing general purpose search engines like Google, plus new specialized search startups like Daydream, use gen AI systems to simplify how consumers discover new products online. Google recently added AI summaries and recommendations to its shopping search tools. Amazon and Walmart have also added AI shopping recommendation tools to their marketplaces, with the former recently rolling out an assistant named Rufus trained on the e-commerce giant's massive product catalog and database of customer reviews. So will Perplexity's new shopping tools also pull information or signals from Amazon's reviews catalog? The answer from Srinivas was unclear. "I'm not completely sure in which cases they're accessible or not accessible," he said. As Perplexity gets started in a new space, it's fair to wonder if customers should expect to still be bombarded with "hallucinations" -- or mistakes -- that many Gen AI products produce. If the answer to a question I asked of Perplexity this morning -- "can you show me your new shopping experience?" -- is any indication, the answer might be yes. "I apologize, but I don't actually have a new shopping experience to show you," the Perplexity search system responded. "I'm an AI assistant created by Anthropic to be helpful, harmless, and honest. I don't have my own shopping platform or experience." (Perplexity's AI system partly relies on Anthropic, a separate AI company, for large language models that generate some of the answers that its search tools produce.) Perplexity's response then highlighted recent AI-powered product discovery experiences rolled out by others including Google, Amazon, and Walmart.

Is Perplexity Pro worth the subscription? This free shipping perk just might convince me

Get the AI shopping help you need, and other perks, right in time for the holidays with Perplexity's new 'first-of-its-kind commerce experience'. AI search engines combine the conversational capabilities of chatbots with the web, creating a new, optimized search experience. Despite their proficiency in research, AI search engines fall short in certain areas, such as online shopping. However, Perplexity hopes to change that with this new feature. Also: The best AI chatbots of 2024: ChatGPT, Copilot, and worthy alternatives On Monday, Perplexity is rolling out what the company is calling a "first-of-its-kind AI commerce experience" in which users can research products via conversational prompts and image inputs, checkout with one click, and even get free shopping on all purchases. The biggest difference between a traditional shopping search experience and Perplexity's shopping assistant is that when you ask a shopping-related question, you get comparisons in everyday language that feature a variety of reviews, "objective" answers, and product cards with the most relevant specs and items, according to the company. Also: Amazon's AI Shopping Guides help you find what you need The items featured on the product cards are not sponsored but are handpicked by AI to match the search prompt. Users also have the option of Snap to Shop; which allows users to take a photo of an item and ask Perplexity to visually find relevant products that match, similar to Google Lens. Using Buy with Pro, consumers can checkout with one click, requiring users to save their shipping and billing information just once. Other benefits of Perplexity Pro include access to at least 300 Pro Searches a day, a more robust search experience, access to the most popular and advanced AI models, including GPT-4o and Claude 3 Sonnet and Opus; API credit; and file analysis. Also: Perplexity AI's new tool makes researching the stock market 'delightful'. Here's how The experience comes at a cost, retailing at $20 per month. Although subscriptions may seem steep, it does guarantee free shipping on all Buy with Pro purchases, which may help you get your money's worth quickly. If Buy with Pro isn't available, users will be redirected to the merchant's website to complete the purchase. Perplexity shares that the shopping experience is powered by multiple partners, including Shopify, which provides Perplexity with the latest product information. Additionally, the company is introducing a free Perplexity Merchant Program, which allows merchants to share their product specs for the latest live details in the experience. Signing up is as easy as filling out the form.

Perplexity's new Buy with Pro is the perfect AI-powered shopping assistant for Black Friday

Popular AI search tool, Perplexity, has been updated just in time for Black Friday with a new 'Buy with Pro' shopping feature. The AI-powered shopping tool is available for users in the US right now, but will be expanding to other countries soon. When searching for a product, Pro members can click the Buy with Pro button to launch the AI-powered shopping experience that remembers their method of payment and delivery address. In order to entice users to use Buy with Pro over the Holiday Season, Perplexity is offering all users free shipping, too. Think of Buy With Pro as an AI-powered shopping experience that uses Perplexity's amazing AI search functionality to not only help you make informed decisions, but also shop without the need of the company's competitors, like Google. Over the last year, users have flocked to AI search engines such as Perplexity and ChatGPT Search. This new addition, allowing you to shop directly from within Perplexity is the next step in the company creating a true Google Search competitor. Perplexity is also launching a Snap-to-Shop experience that is similar to Google Lens. So, you can take a photo of an object and search for it, then ultimately buy it, all from within Perplexity. Perplexity's Buy with Pro will help you with purchase decisions by allowing you to ask detailed questions about products and get detailed answers, thanks to Perplexity's LLM. Buy with Pro includes new easy-to-read product cards for each product it recommends summarizing the most relevant items, key details, and a link to visit the website or buy. Perplexity maintains that its product recommendations aren't sponsored, are completely unbiased, and are tailored to your search by its AI. Product cards will be visible to people searching using Perplexity regardless of whether they are a Pro user, or not. The company says it will be expanding Buy with Pro to other countries in the future, but for now, only those in the US will be able to make the most of Perplexity this Black Friday.