Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Perplexity shattered the artificial intelligence market’s status quo today by launching Deep Research, a tool that generates comprehensive research reports in minutes and opens advanced AI capabilities to users at a fraction of typical enterprise costs. “Thankful for open source! We’re going to keep making this faster and cheaper,” wrote Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas in a post on X.com. “Knowledge should be universally accessible and useful. Not kept behind obscenely expensive subscription plans that benefit the corporates, but not in the interests of humanity!” Thankful for open source! We’re going to keep making this faster and cheaper. Knowledge should be universally accessible and useful. Not kept behind obscenely expensive subscription plans that benefit the corporates, but not in the interests of humanity! https://t.co/mtG4oZhl4z pic.twitter.com/M1yHtXJKUe— Aravind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas) February 14, 2025 Perplexity Deep Research is redefining AI pricing—can enterprise AI survive? The launch exposes a painful truth in AI pricing: expensive enterprise subscriptions may be unnecessary. While Anthropic and OpenAI charge thousands monthly for their services, Perplexity offers five free queries daily to all users. Pro subscribers pay $20 monthly for 500 daily queries and faster processing—a price point that could force larger AI companies to explain why their services cost up to 100 times more. Companies have been significantly increasing their AI investments, with enterprise AI spending expected to rise by 5.7% in 2025, despite overall IT budget increases of less than 2%. Some businesses are planning to increase their AI spending by 10% or more, with an average increase of $3.4 million dedicated to AI initiatives. These investments now look questionable as Perplexity delivers similar capabilities at consumer prices. In a typical query, Perplexity’s Deep Research tool performs 8 searches and consults 42 sources to generate a 1,300-word report in under 3 minutes. (Credit: Perplexity) How Perplexity Deep Research is outperforming Google and OpenAI Deep Research’s technical achievements suggest expensive AI services may be overpriced rather than superior. The system scored 93.9% accuracy on the SimpleQA benchmark and reached 20.5% on Humanity’s Last Exam, outperforming Google’s Gemini Thinking and other leading models. “Deep Research on Perplexity completes most tasks in under 3 minutes,” the company announced, highlighting its ability to perform dozens of searches and analyze hundreds of sources simultaneously. The tool combines web search, coding capabilities, and reasoning functions to refine research iteratively—mimicking expert human researchers but at machine speed. Perplexity Deep Research achieved a 93.9% accuracy score on the SimpleQA benchmark, substantially higher than competing models from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. (Credit: Perplexity) Why Perplexity’s affordable AI is breaking down barriers to advanced technology The implications stretch beyond pricing. Enterprise AI has created a digital divide between well-funded companies and everyone else. Small businesses, researchers, and professionals who couldn’t afford thousand-dollar subscriptions were effectively locked out of advanced AI capabilities. Perplexity’s approach changes this calculation. The tool handles complex tasks from financial analysis and market research to technical documentation and healthcare insights. Users can export findings as PDFs or share them through Perplexity’s platform, potentially replacing expensive research subscriptions and specialized tools. Deep Research is now a commodity thanks to Perplexity pic.twitter.com/Fk8yvPTLzV— Aravind Srinivas (@AravSrinivas) February 14, 2025 The company plans to expand Deep Research to iOS, Android, and Mac platforms, which could accelerate adoption among users who previously viewed AI tools as out of reach. This broad access may prove more valuable than any technical breakthrough—finally putting advanced AI capabilities in the hands of users who need them most. For technical decision makers, this shift demands attention. Companies paying premium prices for AI services should examine whether those investments deliver value beyond what Perplexity now offers at a fraction of the cost. The answer may reshape how organizations approach AI spending in 2025 and beyond. While Perplexity’s competitors scramble to justify their premium pricing, thousands of users are already testing Deep Research’s capabilities. Their verdict might matter more than any benchmark: in AI’s new reality, the best technology isn’t the one that costs the most—it’s the one people can actually use. Daily insights on business use cases with VB Daily If you want to impress your boss, VB Daily has you covered. We give you the inside scoop on what companies are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to practical deployments, so you can share insights for maximum ROI. Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured. https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/eolKgQGzXrc3VFRfpQkNmz1ZvQ.jpeg?w=1024?w=1200&strip=all 2025-02-14 19:49:16
