Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas has made a bold statement regarding the company's new AI-powered browser, Comet: it may reduce the need for additional staff hiring. Srinivas, the co-founder and CEO of the AI search startup, suggests that Comet's ability to automate complex tasks can significantly boost productivity, potentially saving companies the cost of hiring new employees.
According to Srinivas, Comet functions as a "true personal assistant" capable of drafting emails, scheduling meetings, and organizing information without direct user intervention. He told CNBC that, "Instead of hiring one more person on your team, you could just use Comet to supplement all the work that you're doing". Srinivas believes that Comet empowers individuals to accomplish more without increasing headcount.
Comet, initially launched in July for paid users, integrates search, summarization, and task automation features. This allows users to query, process, and act on web data in real-time. Perplexity recently made Comet available for free to all users, extending access beyond its Pro and Max subscription tiers.
Srinivas estimates that the productivity gains from using Comet could be worth $10,000 per employee per year. He suggests this figure highlights the browser's value proposition for businesses seeking to optimize efficiency and reduce costs. "It's truly about delivering value and you being able to delegate tasks to it," he added, describing how Comet lightens workloads.
Perplexity is positioning Comet as a rival to Google Chrome, with the AI-powered browser designed to manage nearly every web-based task. Comet can generate summaries of articles and YouTube videos, describe images on screen, and perform in-depth research. It can also provide AI-generated summaries of all open web pages. The company also launched Comet Plus, a $5-a-month premium tier that offers access to licensed news content from CNN, The Washington Post, and Condé Nast.
Analysts suggest that Perplexity's move to offer Comet for free positions it as a productivity platform and a test of whether businesses are ready to trust browsers that act, not just answer. Srinivas' vision for Comet underscores a growing belief in the tech industry: that the next generation of browsers will actively participate in getting work done. As AI continues to evolve from a tool into a collaborator, Perplexity aims to democratize access to AI-driven productivity, signaling a new era in how humans interact with the web.
Perplexity, backed by Jeff Bezos, SoftBank's Vision Fund, and Nvidia, is valued at approximately $20 billion. The company is also expanding in India, one of its largest markets by traffic, and plans to establish an engineering hub in the country to support product development. They have partnered with Bharti Airtel to provide Airtel's 360 million customers with a complimentary one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro.
