AI conversational search engine Perplexity typically searches for information online or in a provided database and communicates with users one by one. Now the company is changing things up with two new key features to increase responses and improve collaboration capabilities. The Internal Knowledge Search and Spaces features respectively offer a new way of thinking about AI search, not only in the office, but also in your daily life.
Perplexity was one of the first to combine Google-style search engines with ChatGPT-style conversation capabilities, beating both Google and OpenAI with the idea of real-time web search coupled with an interface that could mimic how people actually speak. Search has so far been limited to online searching or using the available databases. The Internal Knowledge Search feature brings them together, allowing simultaneous online and internal searching through one massive source of information.
While it is useful in the professional use of Perplexity for those who need to combine internal company knowledge with the latest information online, it also has applications outside the office. Imagine a student with pages of notes collected from primary sources not available online. Or maybe you have an obscure hobby that’s poorly documented online, but about which you’ve been compiling an encyclopedia for decades. Perplexity can now provide insights from both sources simultaneously, meaning you don’t have to run multiple searches at once, potentially saving huge time and money.
Room to grow
Perplexity’s added Spaces feature offers a different approach to leveraging AI. Perplexity’s Spaces creates a virtual environment for collaboration with both the AI and other humans. You can invite whoever you want to the Space, share files, and use specific instructions to tailor the AI assistant to whatever project you have.
Bewilderment has driven much of Spaces’ pitch around business and related activities, such as with Internal Knowledge Search. But as with the other new feature, Spaces has a lot to offer for certain types of personal projects. For example, a group of students can use Space to both organize their various tasks and take the project to the next level with ideas from an AI assistant, or to plan the perfect vacation with a large group of friends and a recognizable, human-like interface want for the vast knowledge online that can help with planning.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you won’t get sponsored follow-up questions from the AI, but the new features could be ideal for research into both personal and professional varieties.
