If holiday shopping already feels chaotic, Perplexity thinks it has the perfect AI sidekick to calm the storm.
The AI search startup is launching a free agent-based shopping tool for US users next week, an expansion that coincides with shoppers gearing up for Black Friday and the rest of the holiday season.
Perplexity on Nov. 19 announced it will introduce a new shopping experience that allows users to purchase items directly from its search results. The company says the feature is designed to help people transition from “searching” to “buying” without having to jump between websites.
Speaking to CNBC about how the system works, Perplexity’s Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko said, “The agentic part is the seamless purchase right from the answer.” He added, “Most people want to still do their own research. They want that streamlined and simplified, and so that’s the part that is agentic in this launch.”
This new product builds upon last year’s “Buy With Pro,” which was only available to paying subscribers. Now, Perplexity is offering the same one-click shopping experience for free, along with improvements in detecting shopping intent and personalizing suggestions based on past searches.
PayPal jumps in as checkout partner
A big part of this rollout is Perplexity’s deepening partnership with PayPal. Starting next week, users will be able to shop and pay through PayPal inside Perplexity’s search engine across more than 5,000 merchants.
Alex Chriss, PayPal’s president and CEO, announced the collaboration on X, saying he was “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.”
Michelle Gill, who leads PayPal’s agentic strategy, told CNBC the company has been building out new infrastructure as AI pushes commerce into what she calls the “next era of commerce.” She added that PayPal’s buyer protection policies will also apply to purchases made within Perplexity.
Perplexity’s move arrives as major AI players race to build similar tools. OpenAI introduced its Instant Checkout feature in September, partnering with platforms such as Shopify, Etsy, and PayPal. Google has added its own agentic shopping abilities inside Gemini and AI Mode.
Meanwhile, Perplexity’s push builds on its broader expansion into consumer AI products, including its Comet browser and enhanced search tools.