Key Points
- Perplexity launched a free AI shopping feature for US users. The system integrates with PayPal for “Instant Buy” transactions.
- The AI provides personalized product cards with pros and cons.
- Merchants still receive customer data and handle returns.
- Amazon recently challenged Perplexity’s automated purchasing tools.
Perplexity is making online shopping much faster for its users. The AI company is rolling out a new tool for everyone in the United States that turns its chatbot into a capable personal shopper. By teaming up with payment giant PayPal, the platform now allows you to find and buy items without ever leaving the chat window.
The new system goes beyond simple search links. You can ask specific, complicated questions like, “What is the best winter jacket for a commute in San Francisco?” The assistant uses what it knows about your preferences and the local weather to give a tailored answer.
Instead of a wall of text, it presents neatly organized product cards. These cards highlight pros, cons, and key details pulled from reviews across the web, helping you decide without opening a dozen different tabs.
Once you spot something you like, you can use the “Instant Buy” button. This feature uses payment information stored in your PayPal account to handle the transaction immediately. It works for any merchant that already accepts PayPal.
While this means you skip visiting the actual store’s website, Perplexity insists that merchants do not lose out. The company claims sellers still have full visibility into who bought the item and retain control over returns and customer loyalty relationships.
This launch puts Perplexity in direct competition with ChatGPT and Google, both of which recently added similar shopping features to their software. The goal for these tech companies is to verify the transaction and likely earn a referral fee. However, not everyone is happy about an AI acting as a middleman.
Amazon recently sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist order to stop the company’s browser agent from making automated purchases, showing that this new technology still faces significant legal hurdles as it tries to change how we buy things.
