Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine gunning for Google, on Thursday released Perplexity Labs, a tool for subscribers to Perplexity’s $20-per-month Pro plan that can craft reports, spreadsheets, dashboards, and more.
Perplexity Labs is available on the web, iOS, and Android, and coming soon to Perplexity’s apps for Mac and Windows.
“Perplexity Labs can help you complete a variety of work and personal projects,” Perplexity explains in a blog post. “Labs is designed to invest more time — 10 minutes or longer — and leverage additional tools [to accomplish tasks], such as advanced file generation and mini-app creation.”
Labs, which arrives the same day as viral AI agent platform Manus released a slide deck creation tool, is a part of Perplexity’s effort to broaden beyond its core business of search. Perplexity is currently previewing a web browser, Comet, and recently acquired Read.vc, a social media network for professionals.
Perplexity Labs, powered by AI, can conduct research and analysis, taking around 10 minutes and using tools like web search, code execution, and chart and image creation to craft reports and visualizations. Labs can create interactive web apps, Perplexity says, and write code to structure data, apply formulas, and create documents.
All files created during a Perplexity Labs workflow — such as charts, images, and code files — are organized in a tab from where they can be viewed or downloaded. “This expanded capability empowers you to develop a broader array of deliverables for your projects,” according to Perplexity’s blog post.
It all sounds good in theory, but AI being an imperfect technology, Labs likely doesn’t always hit the mark. Of course, we’ll reserve judgment until we have a chance to test it.
Perplexity has increasingly invested in corporate-focused functionality, last summer launching an enterprise plan with user management, “internal knowledge search,” and more. The moves could be in part at the behest of the VCs backing Perplexity, who are no doubt eager to see a return sooner than later. Perplexity is reportedly in talks to raise up to $1 billion in capital from investors at an $18 billion valuation.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/
