Perplexity AI is entering into at the smartphone sport.
The startup on Thursday introduced a partnership to convey its synthetic intelligence seek engine era without delay into Motorola smartphones. As a part of the combination, Perplexity’s AI functions shall be incorporated in Motorola’s suite of “Moto AI” options.
That makes the Razr-maker the primary smartphone logo to combine Perplexity without delay into a tool. Motorola could also be partnering with Microsoft Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Meta for sure queries.
“‘Search shouldn’t be about endless links and ads — it should give the user directly what they want, and we think the best way to do that is through an answer engine,” Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas mentioned onstage Wednesday at an match in New York. “Your phone is now an answer machine, personal assistant and a research agent.”
Perplexity’s integration with Motorola follows OpenAI’s high-profile Apple partnership, presented in December. When Apple customers ask Siri advanced questions, it triggers the ChatGPT integration, the place Siri asks for the person’s permission to get admission to ChatGPT to respond to the question.
The Perplexity-Motorola integration is a distribution partnership, that means it is about Perplexity gaining customers slightly than income, Srinivas advised CNBC in an interview.
“We’re not making money off their sales or anything like that,” he mentioned. “We’re looking for usage, and they’re looking for introducing amazing new, cool features, so it’s like a win-win for both of us.”
Motorola customers will all obtain 3 months freed from Perplexity Pro, together with the corporate’s Deep Research characteristic. That will give Perplexity perception into how people who don’t seem to be a part of its standard target market use the era — whether or not it is for easy alarms and reminders or extra advanced duties, Srinivas mentioned.
Perplexity and Motorola’s partnership comes after a yr of AI-specific units, similar to Humane’s AI Pin and the Rabbit r1, have both failed or introduced to underwhelming critiques.
Investors are eyeing smartphone-AI partnerships as some way for the era to make it into the fingers of customers at the cross each day. And some AI startups are reportedly doing the similar factor — particularly, Sam Altman’s partnership with Apple fashion designer Jony Ive to reportedly make AI units together with a “screenless phone.”
“Fifteen years ago, smartphones changed everything,” Nicole Hagen, Motorola’s head of product advertising and marketing, mentioned onstage Wednesday. “Now, we are standing at the edge of a major shift, once again, in technology.”
Perplexity is prioritizing a smartphone integration as a result of it is “the biggest touch point or access point for a consumer company to be part of,” Srinivas mentioned.
He added that making the device local to a smartphone, slightly than an app it’s a must to consciously make a selection to make use of, makes it more straightforward to get customers into the addiction of turning to AI for day by day duties. It’s additionally an effective way to wreck into the weekend person marketplace, Srinivas mentioned.
“Nobody uses AI on the weekends,” he mentioned. “You can only achieve dialog of ubiquitous usage if you’re deeply ingrained in smartphones on a day-to-day basis.”
Perplexity’s AI seek engine competes towards the likes of Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI. The corporate began 2024 with a kind of $500 million valuation and ended it with a valuation of about $9 billion, after attracting expanding investor passion amid the generative AI growth — in addition to controversy over plagiarism accusations.
Perplexity had just below $100 million in annual routine income, a supply conversant in the location advised CNBC in March.
AI-assisted seek has been considered via buyers as certainly one of Google’s key dangers, because it doubtlessly adjustments the way in which customers get admission to data on-line. Last yr, OpenAI, which began the generative AI craze in past due 2022 with ChatGPT, introduced a seek engine referred to as SearchGPT. Google closing yr additionally introduced “AI Overviews” in seek, permitting customers to peer a handy guide a rough abstract of solutions on the most sensible of effects.
Perplexity remains to be in talks to lift between $500 million and $1 billion in investment at an $18 billion post-money valuation, assets conversant in the location have advised CNBC.