Perplexity AI Takes on Google, OpenAI With Free Agentic Shopping Tool

In Focus

• Perplexity AI is reportedly introducing an AI shopping agent, “Buy With Pro”
• The agentic tool can detect customer intent and personalize shopping results
• The AI startup partnered with PayPal to facilitate payment within its app and website

Perplexity AI is reportedly planning to introduce an agentic shopping tool called “Buy With Pro”, Gadgets360 reported. Perplexity’s free agentic shopping tool comes at a time when consumers are ramping up spending in the holiday season.

Agentic Shopping Tool Available to Paid Subscribers

The AI startup first unveiled the “Buy With Pro” shopping feature in late 2024. The “Buy With Pro” feature is only available to Perplexity AI’s paid subscribers.

The AI agent tool is an addition to Perplexity’s Comet AI browser shopping capabilities, which allow users to place orders on ecommerce websites. Perplexity AI started testing the Comet Browser with subscribers on Android earlier this month.

Perplexity’s new AI shopping tool will be able to:

• Detect customer’s shopping intent
• Analyse previous searches conducted by users
• Generate highly personalized shopping results for users

CNBC reported that Perplexity AI could launch its free agentic shopping product in the U.S. next week.

“The agentic part is the seamless purchase right from the answer. Most people still want to do their own research. They want that streamlined and simplified, and so that’s the part that is agentic in this launch,” Perplexity’s Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko said in a CNBC interview.

Perplexity’s Partnership With PayPal

As Perplexity prepares for its agentic commerce launch, the AI startup also teamed up with Paypal. This partnership allows PayPal users to make payments via the PayPal service within the Perplexity app and website.

“Excited to partner with @perplexity_ai to power seamless agentic shopping experiences. Starting next week, customers will be able to search, shop and pay for their holiday purchases with @PayPal in Perplexity,” PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said in a post on X.

Perplexity’s PayPal shopping integration will enable shoppers to make direct purchases from more than 5,000 merchants via the Perplexity search engine.

Paypal has been working to facilitate in-chat shopping on AI-powered platforms. Last month, the global payment platform partnered with OpenAI to allow ChatGPT users to complete purchases using its digital wallet.

Google, OpenAI’s Agent-Driven Shopping Tools

Perplexity plans to launch the “Buy With Pro” agentic shopping tool at a time when tech companies have been leveraging AI to make online shopping seamless.

OpenAI has integrated an agentic shopping system called Instant Checkout in its AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT. The shopping agent allows U.S. users to shop on Shopify and Etsy without leaving chats

Last week, Google introduced AI agents to the Gemini app and AI Mode in Search to make shopping faster and easier. Although Perplexity AI is introducing its shopping tool a bit late, its platform has always prioritized shopping.