Imagine an AI assistant that doesn’t just answer your questions but actively works for you in the background, 24/7. That's the future Perplexity is building with its new 'Teammates', moving beyond a simple answer engine to create proactive AI agents.
From Search Engine to AI 'Teammate'
Perplexity has introduced a significant evolution of its service: always-on AI agents called 'Teammates'. Announced on November 5, 2026, this new feature signals a fundamental shift from a reactive search tool to a proactive work partner. Unlike a traditional chatbot that waits for your next prompt, Teammates are designed to take on long-running jobs, manage complex projects, and work continuously in the background with minimal human supervision. The idea, as framed by CEO Aravind Srinivas, is to change the paradigm from writing individual prompts to assigning high-level goals. These agents can be assigned specific roles, such as a market researcher, a project manager, or a sales analyst, and they will work autonomously to achieve the objectives you set.
How Do These Agents Work?
Teammates are built upon Perplexity's existing 'Computer' agent platform, which already orchestrates multiple AI models to execute complex, multi-step tasks. What makes Teammates different is their persistence. They retain project history, memory, and context over time, allowing them to handle ongoing responsibilities. For example, an agent could be tasked with monitoring a Slack channel for customer support issues, triaging them, and even suggesting solutions. Another could track a competitor's market activity, continuously updating a research brief as new information becomes available. These agents can even collaborate with each other, handing off tasks as a project progresses. For example, one agent might identify a bug on a website, and another could then be tasked with preparing the code to fix it.
The Importance of Native Apps
While Teammates are initially rolling out to web users with a premium 'Max' subscription, Perplexity has confirmed that native mobile and desktop apps are 'coming soon'. This is a crucial piece of the strategy. For an AI agent to be truly 'always-on', it needs the deep system integration that only a native application can provide. Native apps can run background processes more efficiently, manage notifications intelligently, and access system resources and tools in a way a web browser cannot. For a large and mobile-first market like India, the future availability of a native app experience will be key to the feature's adoption and utility, allowing professionals to monitor and direct their AI agents from anywhere.
A New Frontier for Workplace Productivity
The potential impact on workplace productivity is enormous. Perplexity envisions a future where every employee could have hundreds of AI Teammates working for them. According to CEO Aravind Srinivas, internal testing has already shown significant gains, with some employees getting the equivalent of an extra 40 hours of work per week from their agents. These agents are designed for a variety of business functions, including marketing, sales, customer support, operations$, and software development. By automating routine monitoring$, research$, and coordination$, Teammates could free up human workers to focus on higher$-level strategy$, creativity$, and decision$-making$. The system integrates with common workplace tools like Slack$, GitHub$, and Gmail$, allowing for seamless collaboration between human and AI teams.
Addressing Security and Cost
Of course$, an AI that has persistent access to company data raises important security questions$. Perplexity states that it has built in controls to address this$. Each Teammate operates in its own isolated virtual environment$, with separate browser sessions and encrypted credentials to protect connected systems$. Users can also inspect an agent's work$, redirect it$, or take direct control of its desktop environment to ensure oversight$. However$, this advanced capability comes at a premium$. Access to Teammates requires Perplexity's 'Max' subscription$, which costs $200 per month$. This positions the feature as a high$-end tool for power users and enterprise teams who believe the productivity gains will justify the significant investment.
