Perplexity AI will soon start showing ads on its search platform

Perplexity AI, the company behind the artificial intelligence (AI) search platform of the same name, announced on Tuesday that it will experiment with advertisements this week. An earlier report highlighted the company’s plans to include advertising by the end of the year to boost sales. The AI ​​company says ads will be served in a format that doesn’t clutter or ruin the user experience of the platform. Additionally, it was highlighted that all ads will be marked as sponsored to inform users when an ad appears.

How Perplexity plans to show ads in search results

In one blog postthe AI-powered search engine shared details on how it plans to implement advertising on the service. Perplexity claims that it will not duplicate the SEO industry’s use of “arbitrary tactics to boost their rankings at the expense of user usability.” Instead, Perplexity says it will instead serve ads in a format that is “transparent” and will spark a user’s curiosity about a brand.

How ads appear on Perplexity’s platform
Photo credit: confusion

Perplexity will show ads as ‘sponsored follow-up questions’ and ‘paid media’ next to an answer. The advertisements contain a question that directly addresses the brand’s offer. The AI ​​company also emphasized that if a user clicks on the sponsored question, the answer will not be written or edited by the brand, and instead Perplexity’s AI will be used to generate an authentic answer.

The company also revealed that Indeed, Whole Foods Market, Universal McCann and PMG are its first brand partners, and users can expect to see ads from these companies in the coming days. While Perplexity plans to begin ad tests this week, they will only be shown to users living in the US.

Perplexity says the move to serving ads will allow the company to generate revenue and share it with its publishing partners. Perplexity pays partner publishers to use their articles and data to generate responses to queries.

“Experience has taught us that subscriptions alone do not generate enough revenue to create a sustainable revenue sharing program. Especially given the speed at which our publisher program is growing, advertising is the best way to ensure a stable and scalable revenue stream,” said Perplexity.