The wave of generative AI has taken over many industries, including e-commerce and online shopping experiences, and Perplexity is the latest to join the game in offering a way to research and shop directly from its chatbot. The latest experience from Perplexity AI is now available for United States-based users to utilize and ask the chatbot their many questions before their purchases.
It is joining the Big Tech pioneers of online shopping with AI chatbots initially popularized by Amazon and later having Google offer its version of the experience which helps expand more of AI-powered experiences.
Perplexity Debuts 'Shopping' AI Chatbot Experience to US
According to the latest thread from Perplexity shared via X, the California-based AI startup is now offering an e-commerce and online shopping experience straight from its chatbot that will no longer have users jumping from one app or site to another. Right on its platform, Perplexity offers a way for users to ask about a product or describe it to the chatbot for it to crawl the world wide web.
The company is calling this the "one-stop shop solution where you can research and purchase products," which offers an intuitive way of finding a specific item you are looking to purchase online.
More importantly, the Perplexity chatbot can bring the shopping experience directly to its platform, with native actions available for users to enjoy, as it will not offer a link that would redirect users to the item's landing page.
Ask the Chatbot and Directly Purchase via Perplexity
Users may ask the chatbot about anything, and it begins by typing up a prompt or order that will either show users search results or helpful information like user reviews and the like, before their purchase. Perplexity also offers a native button for users to directly buy the item via 'Buy with Pro' that will purchase the product and charge it via their linked payment methods.
According to Perplexity, all 'Buy with Pro' orders will be eligible for free shipping on all items, regardless of their price. For now, only Perplexity Pro users in the US can enjoy this direct e-commerce experience via the chatbot.
The Rising AI Startup, Perplexity
The San Francisco-based AI startup, Perplexity, made its name known when it entered the then-debuting artificial intelligence industry, with the company promising a different kind of experience available on their platform. Perplexity AI offers a chatbot that allows interactions with machine learning technology in a conversational manner, and it is famous for offering internet-based answers to users.
However, because of its renowned capabilities to offer internet-based results to users of the chatbot, Perplexity faced significant controversy for its alleged illegal scraping of websites that violated many's terms. Amazon Web Services previously launched an investigation against Perplexity's alleged data scraping, as the startup allegedly violated the Robots Exclusion Protocol.
What set Perplexity apart is its massive backing in the tech industry with investors like the Jeff Bezos family fund and NVIDIA who collectively gave the AI startup a whopping $3 billion for their developments. Now, Perplexity is stepping up its AI game in the industry by introducing the new 'Shopping' experience for its Pro users in the United States, and it hopes to deliver an all-in-one online shopping experience via its chatbot.
