Artificial intelligence in the workplace has largely been a tool for one-off questions. Perplexity's new 'Teammates' feature aims to change that, introducing persistent AI agents that can manage complex, long-running projects from start to finish.
Meet Your New AI Teammates
Perplexity,
known for its AI-powered search and answer engine, has unveiled a new capability called Teammates. Announced in early November 2026, Teammates are essentially a team of AI agents designed to take ownership of ongoing work. Instead of just answering a single prompt, you can assign a Teammate a broader responsibility, like managing a marketing campaign, tracking project deadlines, or triaging customer support tickets. The AI then works autonomously in the background, 24/7, planning and executing tasks until the work is ready for human review. It’s a significant step beyond simple Q&A, positioning the AI not as a temporary assistant, but as a persistent member of the team.
How Is This Different from Other AI?
The key differentiator for Teammates is persistence and autonomy. While many AI assistants forget the context once a chat is closed, Teammates are designed to remember project goals, task history, shared files, and even feedback from previous assignments. This allows them to handle complex, multi-step projects over extended periods without needing repeated instructions. They build upon Perplexity's existing 'Computer' platform, but add capabilities for large-scale, sustained work. The system supports 'multi-agent orchestration', meaning one Teammate can break a large goal into smaller tasks and assign them to other AI agents to work on in parallel. They can even hand off work to one another, such as one agent finding website bugs and another preparing the code fixes.
What Can Teammates Actually Do?
Perplexity is positioning Teammates for a variety of core business functions. In marketing, an AI Teammate could manage social media campaigns, monitor competitor pricing, and even draft fixes for an underperforming ad before a human even notices. For sales teams, a Teammate might identify opportunities from past customer interactions, prepare quotes, and follow up on conversations. An operations-focused Teammate can track project deadlines and chase missing documentation, while a finance agent could be tasked with drafting reminders for overdue invoices. The system is also designed to be proactive; for example, a sales agent could notice a regular customer has stopped ordering, independently investigate their support history for issues, and then propose a personalized offer to win them back.
Integration and Security in the Workplace
To be truly useful, AI needs to work where the humans do. Teammates integrate with common workplace tools like Slack, GitHub, and Gmail. Colleagues can add a Teammate to a Slack channel to assign it work or ask for a status update, just like a human team member. Security is a major consideration, and Perplexity states that each Teammate operates in its own isolated 'sandbox' environment with a separate browser session. This is designed to protect sensitive data. Saved credentials are encrypted, and access follows permissions that users have already established for tools and projects. While the agents work autonomously, users can inspect their progress, redirect them mid-task, or take full control when needed.
Who Is This For and What Does It Cost?
This advanced functionality is aimed squarely at power users and enterprise clients. Teammates are available as part of the Perplexity Max subscription plan, which costs $200 per month or $2,000 annually for an individual account. The feature was launched on the web, with access for iOS and Android planned to follow. The high price point and enterprise-focused capabilities put Perplexity in direct competition with similar work-focused agent offerings from major players like OpenAI and Anthropic. Initially, the company has stated that the use of Teammates will be free for a promotional period for Max subscribers, after which it will draw from a monthly credit allotment included with the plan.
