Perplexity enters commerce realm, utilizing Paypal for direct purchases within search

Perplexity, an artificial intelligence-powered search and chat engine, has added a position in commerce, with a new feature allowing users to buy products directly in the chat, utilizing PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) or Venmo for the checkout process.

The feature is a step above Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI’s recent shopping feature. It aids shoppers using ChatGPT Search, but still requires them to leave the chat box and go to another site or app to finalize purchases.

“This partnership unlocks new possibilities, where conversations now drive commerce,” said PayPal CEO Alex Chriss. “We’re making it easy and secure to shop right in the chat when inspiration strikes. It’s a powerful step in making conversational commerce a reality.”

With PayPal handling transactions behind the scenes, the long-time digital transaction company can verify the credibility of both buyers and sellers. A secure tokenized wallet and passkey checkouts can eliminate the need for passwords, simplifying checkouts to a click.

“Perplexity wants to have accurate, trustworthy answers wherever people are making decisions,” said Perplexity CEO and co-founder Aravind Srinivas. “PayPal is a natural partner because we share a vision for how important trust is in the age of AI.”

Perplexity has 15M monthly active users, according to various reports.

Several major digital shopping sites, such as Amazon, Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY) and Wayfair (NYSE:W), have AI assistants within their sites to help users shops. However, these are only utilized within their respective sites or apps.

Perplexity, which is backed by major investors such as Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) co-founder Jeff Bezos, is reportedly in the late stages of a new funding round that would value the startup at $14B. It was valued at $9B in December.

And earlier this month, Apple (AAPL) executive Eddy Cue said the iPhone maker was in talks with Perplexity amid a decline in queries on its Safari browser.