Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas believes the future of AI lies in browsers, not chatbots. And he said that he comes for two roles that all modern workplaces rely on: recruiters and administrative assistants.
In an episode of Verge's “Decoder” podcast on Thursday, Srinivas explained how Comet, his company's new AI-Native browser, is designed to not only help people browse the web, but also to fully automate knowledge work.
“The weekly recruiter job is one prompt: you get to sourcing and out,” he said.
He explained how Comet's built-in AI agents can access apps like Gmail, LinkedIn, Google Calendar, and other to generate suggestions, pull out contact information, and send personalized outreach emails.
Srinivas also believes Comet can take over many of the executive assistant's daily duties, including email triage, calendar management, and meeting preparation.
“You want to keep following it up and track their reaction,” he said.
“Some people respond, do Google Sheets to update, mark responses or ongoing status, follow up those candidates, sync with Google Calendar, resolve conflicts and schedule chats, then drive short before meetings.”
Ultimately, Srinivas believes Comet will evolve into an AI operating system for white-collar workers.
While comets are still only invited and available to premium users, Srinivas bets that people pay for AI that does meaningful work.
“On scale, if it helps to make millions of dollars, wouldn't it make sense to spend $2,000 on that prompt?
Tech leaders are split over whether AI will replace or reform white-collar jobs
Perplexity CEOs don't just predict a wave of disruption from AI for white-collar jobs.
Humanity CEO Dario Amodei told Axios that even white-collar experts could be overtaken by AI soon. Halil Sagirkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicts that AI will be able to eliminate 50% of entry-level employment within five years.
Speaking to Axios in May, he said he didn't know the size of what the public came, and that businesses and governments were “sugar painted” risks in areas such as finance, legal, consulting and technology.
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Ford CEO Jim Farley reiterated his view last month at the Aspen Idea Festival, saying “artificial intelligence will literally replace half of all white-collar workers in the United States.”
But not everyone agrees to an apocalyptic take.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has built AI as an extension tool rather than an alternative engine.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave a similar point, telling Vivatech reporters in June.
Even amidst a more bullish voice, change is coming at a rapid pace, with a broad consensus that workers must adapt or take risks for obsolescence.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees in a note from public staff that generative AI reduces the company's white-collar workforce and “inspires them to educate themselves, participate in workshops, get trained, use and experiment whenever possible.”
Perplexity's Srinivas issued a similar warning on Friday in a podcast episode by Matthew Berman.
“People on frontiers who use AI will be much more employable than those who don't,” he said. “It's guaranteed that it will happen.”
