Assigning work by defined role
Perplexity announced on its official X account on Nov. 5 (Nov. 6 Japan time) that it had added "teammates," which keep working in set roles, to "Computer," its AI agent that works on users' behalf. According to the product page, subscribers to the paid "Max" plan can use it on the web.
According to the company, teammates inherit the projects, skills and memory that users created in Computer. Users can hand off entire projects or recurring tasks, and teammates monitor the systems they are responsible for and act as conditions change. They coordinate with other teammates and also contact colleagues on Slack.
The product page cited ad management, engineering, quality assurance, legal research, overnight incident response and running an online store as examples of roles. For each one, users set the role, standing instructions, the tools it uses and the conditions under which it asks a person for a decision.
A dedicated desktop for each, with permissions inherited from existing settings
According to the company, each teammate has its own dedicated desktop and browser and keeps separate browsing sessions and cookies. AlphaSignal reported that this allows, for example, the ad teammate to log in to Meta and the development teammate to log in to GitHub. The tools available are the same as the skills and plug-ins the user has installed, with the same permissions, the company said. It says the security and privacy foundation is shared with Computer.
No outside verification of whether the isolation actually holds was found. AlphaSignal pointed out that, depending on how permissions are inherited and how the conditions for asking a person are set, the permissions agents actually hold could expand. It also cited maintaining context during long-running operation and whether audit records are sufficient as points to confirm in real-world use.
Examples of operation are company demos, with no performance figures
According to AlphaSignal, in the company's demo, a teammate handling overnight incident response detected an increase in "HTTP 502" errors after a system update, identified the cause and created a pull request with a proposed fix. It notifies a person when a fix requires approval or when it cannot identify the cause within 15 minutes. The company also showed an example in which the quality assurance teammate tested a fix made by the development teammate and returned the results.
No performance figures, such as success rates or processing times, could be confirmed. On Nov. 4, the day before, the company published a case study saying Computer ran Meta ads for U.S. seafood seller Get Maine Lobster and achieved 3.5 times the sales on 2.1 times the ad spend compared with regular ads. That is the company's claim; it covers 1 company, the $30,000 test budget was provided by Perplexity and there is no third-party verification. It is also not a teammates case study.
Launches on the web for Max; size of free allowance unconfirmed
The feature is for Max subscribers and is available on the web. Support for iOS and Android is planned, and the desktop and mobile apps are listed as "coming soon." Max costs $167 a month billed annually and has also been reported at $200 a month.
During the promotional period, every Max subscription comes with a free allowance for teammates. Once the free allowance is used up, the credits included with Max are consumed. Max includes 10,000 credits a month, and since 100 credits equal $1, that is worth $100. The spending cap defaults to $200 a month and can be set up to $5,000.
The size and duration of the free allowance could not be confirmed. None of the product page, the pricing page or the credits explanation page states how many credits teammates use for monitoring and work, so monthly costs cannot be estimated. Availability for Pro or Enterprise could not be confirmed on the product page. The timing of the apps and whether the feature can be used from Japan are also unconfirmed.
Wider availability since February launch
Computer launched for Max subscribers on Feb. 25. On March 12 it expanded to Pro users and, for businesses, became usable inside Slack.
On Oct. 20, it added support for a mode that runs entirely on a Mac. The company says this mode processes models and task planning on the device, allowing work to be completed without sending personal data to the cloud. Teammates add to the same Computer the ability to keep working in defined roles.
dots and Duet came first in always-on agents
Among agents that keep working on users' behalf, OpenAI announced dots on Sept. 29, and Anthropic began a research preview of Claude Duet on Oct. 21. Each user gets one dots, available on plans such as Pro, starting at $100 a month. Duet is for Pro and Max, starting at $20 a month, and is invitation-only from a U.S. waitlist. Perplexity emphasizes coordinating multiple agents with different roles. Its cheapest eligible plan has the highest monthly price of the 3 companies.
The handling of usage allowances also differs. dots does not count conversations against the allowance but does count tasks it starts. Duet shares its allowance with regular Claude. Teammates consume credits after the free allowance.
Annualized revenue reported at over $750 million
Perplexity's annualized revenue topped $750 million by August, up from less than $250 million in January, The Information reported. It is the latest month's level extended over 12 months and differs in nature from audited financial results. How far it can increase use of its top paid plans will be the focus for teammates.
