Perplexity Computer launches — agentic system runs 19 AI models in parallel to complete multi-hour tasks

Perplexity launched Perplexity Computer on February 25, an agentic AI system that takes a high-level goal, decomposes it into steps, spins up specialized sub-agents across 19 different AI models, and runs them until the task is complete. Unlike Perplexity's core search product, Computer is designed for workflows that span hours or days — not single queries. The system is available to Pro and Max subscribers.

Perplexity is pivoting from a better search engine to an autonomous work engine. The 19-model orchestration is the differentiator — rather than being locked to one provider's capabilities, Computer routes each sub-task to whatever model performs best at that subtask. This is architecturally closer to OpenAI Operator and Anthropic's computer use than it is to ChatGPT or Claude chat. Separately, Perplexity secured a preloaded integration on Samsung Galaxy S26 — OS-level access that ChatGPT and Claude don't have on Android.