Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, may soon include ads: report

Perplexity AI, the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search engine, is reportedly planning to show ads on its platform. Advertisers will be given a spot in the related questions portion of the user feed, where ads will be featured based on the relevance of the user’s query, according to the report. The company is said to be showing ads until the next financial quarter, which users can see from July. Notably, Perplexity recently partnered with Nothing to offer a free subscription to Perplexity Pro with any purchase of a Phone 2a.

Perplexity’s Chief Business Officer, Dmitry Shevelenko, was talking with Adweek to reveal the company’s plans to sell ads. According to the report, the plan is to integrate ads in a way that is not obstructive or intrusive to the user. To this end, Perplexity will display ads in the related questions section that appears when a user makes a basic inquiry on the platform.

After a user asks a question, the AI ​​chatbot scours the internet for relevant information and presents it conversationally, while noting the sources from which it took the data. Just below that is a “Related” tab that shows questions that go deeper into the topic or questions related to the original query. Currently, the company claims that these related questions are organic and curated using its AI recommendation algorithm. However, once the company starts selling ads, it will be a mix of organic and brand-sponsored questions.

However, the report states that the company does not plan to show random ads and will only place them where it is appropriate for the user. Rival Google Search told Adweek that the decision to include ads in the Related Questions section was made because it accounts for 40 percent of the AI ​​search platform’s total queries. In January, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said in a post that the platform has 10 million monthly active users (MAU).

The strong numbers also saw the platform raise $73.6 million (Rs. 613 Crores approx) in Series B funding led by IVP. Nvidia and Jeff Bezos were also listed as investors during the fundraising. Now the company has to convince advertisers that the ad space it sells them can offer good visibility for their products.