AI search engine startup Perplexity is easily one of the most talked about players in the tech world. It continues to draw attention not only because of its clashes with rivals and various legal challenges but also due to its consistent pace of shipping new features and AI-powered tools almost every month.
In the last two months, the Jeff Bezos-backed AI startup has continued to add various new capabilities to its search engine, such as letting users search for research patents more easily. Most recently, Perplexity announced that it has “completely reimagined” Comet Assistant, the AI agent that is at the centre of its AI browser, Comet.
Unlike Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox’s traditional tabbed interface, Perplexity’s Comet offers a unique generative AI experience that lets users directly ask questions about the webpage they are viewing, among multiple other use cases. The agentic AI browser was made free-to-use for all Windows and Mac users earlier this year.
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Here’s a roundup of everything new with Comet Assistant and the latest upgrades to the Perplexity AI search engine.
New features coming to Comet Assistant
Perplexity has upgraded Comet Assistant so that the AI browser agent can take more types of actions across a wider variety of tasks. “Our internal tests show it performs 23% better than its predecessor. This is helpful when your task for the assistant requires it to get many steps right, and all in the right order,” the company said in a blog post on November 6.
Some of these features include:
Working across multiple tabs: Comet Assistant now has the ability to switch back and forth between tabs in order to fill out a spreadsheet or other data entry-related tasks.Asking for your permission: The AI browser agent will now ask users whether they want to run a task directly within the Comet browser or not. It will follow the same user preference throughout the entire task based on what the user chooses.Interacting with complex websites: Perplexity said it has also made adjustments to the AI browser agent’s underlying architecture, enabling it to better perceive and interact with complex web environments.
Perplexity also outlined the following new sample prompts for users to try with Comet:Story continues below this ad
Organise your job search: Ask Comet to “Find jobs on LinkedIn for creative software companies that are looking for product managers.”Find the best travel deals: Ask Comet to “Search a few major sites and find me the cheapest flight from San Francisco to New York next Monday.”Keep track of your child’s school attendance: Ask Comet to “Create a Google Sheet with a week by week breakdown of how often my child has been late and absent to school this year.”
New AI patent search tool
Last month, Perplexity unveiled a new AI agent designed to make it easier to search for research patents, a process that is supposed to be notoriously difficult. The patent research agent lets users search for patents using natural language. For instance, users can ask Perplexity “Key quantum computing patents since 2024” or “Are there any patents on AI language learning?”
The AI search engine will, then, show users the relevant results along with AI-generated summaries of each one. The new feature is currently available in beta for everyone to use. However, Pro and Max users have access to additional usage quotas and configuration options.
AI search in Snapchat
Besides aggressively adding new features, Perplexity has also announced a series of partnerships that have driven a massive surge in its valuation, which now stands at around $20 billion.Story continues below this ad
Snap, the parent company of the Snapchat app, said it has signed a deal with Perplexity AI to integrate its AI “answer engine” into the social media app starting in early 2026. The integrated Perplexity AI service will provide Snap users with “real-time answers from credible sources and explore new topics within the app,” the companies said.
Tracking politicians’ stock holdings on Perplexity Finance
Recently, Perplexity upgraded its Finance dashboard to allow users to track the holdings and trading activity of American politicians. With this feature, users simply have to click on a company that is listed on US exchanges, go to ‘Holders’, and select ‘Politicians’ in order to bring up all the American politicians that are stock holders of that company.
It also shows the amounts invested by these politicians in the company. CEO Aravind Srinivas has said that Indians using Perplexity Finance will also soon be able to see the stock holdings of Indian politicians in various companies.