What is Perplexity, and do customers use it to find businesses?
Perplexity describes itself as an AI-powered search engine. You type a question, it searches the web, and it writes an answer in plain language with links to the sources it used. A customer can ask it who to hire for a job, and the answer may name businesses. Because it shows its sources, a business can see which pages shaped what Perplexity said about it, and fix what it controls.
What Perplexity is
Perplexity's own help center describes it as an "AI-powered search engine". Instead of a list of links, it gives a written answer drawn from several sources, and it says "Each response includes citations and links to original sources" so the reader can check them.
The same page says it draws on the web in real time as questions are asked, and that it uses AI models including OpenAI's GPT models and Anthropic's Claude.
Do customers use it to find businesses?
They can. Anyone can ask it a question like "who repairs garage doors near me?", and the answer may name businesses and link to where that information came from. How many of your own customers do this is hard to know unless you ask them how they found you.
For a small service business, Perplexity is usually one channel among several, next to Google, other AI assistants, referrals and reviews. It is worth a few minutes to see how it describes you.
Why the sources matter to you
Not every AI answer makes it easy to see where a claim came from. Perplexity lists its sources with the answer. That makes it easier to see whether a description of your business came from your own website, a directory, a review site or a news story.
If a cited page has old hours, a service you no longer offer or the wrong town, that is the page to correct, where you are able to.
How to check what it says about you
Ask it the questions your customers would ask, then open the sources it lists to see which pages it relied on. The related answer on checking what ChatGPT says about your business sets out the full monthly check.
What no one can promise
No one can promise that Perplexity, or any other assistant, will recommend a particular business; the related answer on how customers find businesses through AI assistants explains why.
Sources
Related answers
- How do customers find businesses through AI assistants?
- How do you check what ChatGPT says about your business?
- Do AI assistants get facts about businesses wrong?
GEO: recommended in AI answers
When a customer asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI who to call, the answer names a few businesses. GEO is the work of making yours one of them.