Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has recently expressed his admiration for Perplexity AI, an emerging conversational AI search engine. In a tweet, Sharma highlighted the effectiveness of Perplexity AI, sharing his belief that users, once accustomed to it, might not return to alternatives like Bard or ChatGPT for numerous applications.

What Happened? His comments follow Shashank Dixit’s podcast discussion with Ranveer Allahbadia, where Dixit praised Perplexity AI for its quick and credible responses to user queries, even deeming it superior to Google for information gathering.

Perplexity AI has been making headlines, particularly after securing a substantial $73.6 million (₹611 crore) in Series B funding from reputable companies and tech leaders. This investment has significantly elevated Perplexity AI’s market presence, now valued at $530 million (₹4,400 crore), with a total capital of $100 million (₹830 crore). Its investor roster boasts names like Jeff Bezos of Amazon and NVIDIA, among others.

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What is Perplexity AI and how is it different from other AI chatbots?

What sets Perplexity AI apart is its ability to provide straightforward answers to queries, streamlining the traditional search process plagued by multiple links and pages. It delivers responses complete with hyperlinks for reference, offering users a seamless experience. Despite serving only a fraction of Google’s daily users, Perplexity has garnered a following among tech enthusiasts keen on exploring generative AI’s capabilities.

Perplexity AI’s approach includes maintaining its index of webpages and blending its unique AI technology with external resources like OpenAI. The company offers a $20 (₹1,660) monthly subscription for a more potent version of its search engine, powered by OpenAI's GPT-4. Although not yet profitable, Perplexity AI generates revenue between $5 million (₹41.5 crore) and $10 million (₹83 crore) annually from subscriptions and AI software sales to other companies. The startup has relied mostly on word-of-mouth marketing, seeing a significant rise in user visits since its launch.

As it scales up and analyzes user query patterns, Perplexity AI aims to lower costs. While profitability remains a goal, the company has not ruled out the possibility of introducing ads in the future.

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