Perplexity AI Unveils Perplexity Computer: A New Era of Autonomous AI Agent Systems

Founded in San Francisco in August 2022, Perplexity AI, Inc. has transitioned from a specialized search engine into a powerhouse of digital productivity. In the final days of February 2026, the company announced the debut of Perplexity Computer, a groundbreaking system designed around autonomous AI agents. This launch marks a pivotal moment for the organization, as it expands its footprint into the competitive sector of general-purpose digital workers. By moving beyond simple information retrieval, Perplexity aims to redefine how users interact with technology to accomplish complex professional goals.

The core functionality of Perplexity Computer is its ability to execute sophisticated, multi-step workflows based on high-level natural language prompts. Whether a user requests to "build a functional website" or "generate a detailed market analysis report," the system manages the entire process from start to finish. To achieve this, Perplexity utilizes a robust architecture that integrates several leading models, such as Opus 4.6, Gemini, ChatGPT 5.2, and Grok. This strategy highlights a shift in the industry toward model specialization, reflecting Perplexity’s belief that diverse models are better suited for specific tasks rather than being universal substitutes for one another.

Task execution within Perplexity Computer occurs in secure, isolated environments, allowing the agents to perform planning, web-based research, and file manipulation with high precision. Furthermore, the system can make API calls to external services, representing a significant evolution over the capabilities of standard conversational chatbots. Currently, the service is accessible to subscribers of the Perplexity Max plan, which is priced at $200 per month. Under the leadership of founder Aravind Srinivas, the company also plans to roll out these features to Enterprise Max clients soon, directly challenging other major players in the generative assistant market.

The landscape for these technologies is becoming increasingly crowded, notably with the rise of the open-source project OpenClaw. Developed by engineer Peter Steinberger, OpenClaw gained massive traction by mid-February 2026, surpassing 190,000 stars on GitHub. The project, which previously operated under the names Clawd and Moltbot, offers a local execution model that appeals to users seeking maximum data privacy. While OpenClaw provides a decentralized alternative, Perplexity Computer is marketed as a superior technological leap due to its seamless, cloud-based integration and its focus on completing entire work cycles without manual intervention.

Current market dynamics suggest that the appetite for autonomous agent systems is at an all-time high. According to a survey by CrewAI involving 500 high-level executives, every single enterprise surveyed plans to increase its adoption of agentic AI during 2026, with 74% of respondents viewing it as a top-tier priority. This trend is further evidenced by the growth of firms like Aurasell, which provides AI operating systems for CRM automation. These industry shifts indicate a broader transition toward embedding agentic capabilities directly into existing corporate infrastructures, signaling a new era of automated business operations.