Perplexity Unveils AI-Powered Shopping Tool In Face Off Against Google, OpenAI

Perplexity, the San Francisco-based AI powerhouse, has rolled out a tailored shopping experience right within its platform, enabling users to uncover products through casual, natural-language chats and seal deals swiftly via PayPal integration. 

In a new blog post, Perplexity unpacked the features of the shopping assistant, which acts as a memory-savvy conversational guide that recalls user preferences to streamline everything from browsing to buying. For now, it’s live in the US exclusively on desktop and web versions, with Android and iOS expansions on the horizon.

Users can simply ask questions like “Show me a warm winter jacket for daily ferry rides” or “Recommend minimalist running shoes under Rs 5,000.” The AI responds with a tightly curated selection of product cards tailored to the request and the user’s conversation history. Follow-up queries can further improve the suggestions in real time.

The recommendations by the AI chatbot draw on the full history of chats with the same user and Perplexity’s long-context understanding — for example, favouring clean, minimalist designs if the user has shown interest in them before. The company emphasises that results are never influenced by paid sponsorships or ad-driven re-ranking.

Purchases can be completed without leaving the interface thanks to an integration with PayPal. Perplexity argues that the feature actually benefits third-party retailers in two key ways: merchants retain full control over order fulfilment, customer data, and the post-purchase relationship, and shoppers who arrive via Perplexity tend to have significantly higher buying intent than typical browsers.

As the holiday rush looms, this move aligns with a broader trend among tech giants unveiling personalised AI-powered shopping tools. Google dropped similar features into Gemini and AI Mode last month, while OpenAI unveiled its Shopping Research tool for ChatGPT just this Monday.

Perplexity shopping tool also comes on the back of tension’s with other tech giants. Earlier this month, Amazon hit Perplexity with a cease-and-desist notice, accusing its Comet browser’s AI crawlers of unlawfully scraping site data for unauthorised access.