Get ready for AI to serve Google Search-style ads

Conversational AI search engine Perplexity is taking a leaf out of Google’s advertising playbook with a new sponsorship program. Companies can pay for one of the “related follow-up questions” that users see when they ask Perplexity to investigate something. The paid question will be labeled as such, just like the sponsored links in a Google search. Perplexity has previously said that ad-driven models don’t influence the AI’s answers. That’s likely true for everything except these sponsored follow-up questions.

The companies in question are publishers whose work Perplexity’s AI may use in its answers. The first group consists of TIME, Der Spiegel, Fortune, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribuneand WordPress.com. The sponsors and Perplexity will split the revenue in an undisclosed manner, with the companies paying Perplexity based on how many people see the available branded questions.