Episode #129: [AI in Action] How to Use Perplexity AI: The Complete Guide for Cutting Your Research Time in Half
Let’s be real: digging through dozens of Google tabs just to find one solid stat or update? Exhausting. And time-consuming.
That’s where Perplexity AI comes in: a next-gen search and research assistant designed to save you hours every single week.
In this episode of Tech Savvy 101, I’m giving you a full walkthrough of Perplexity AI: what it is, how it works, and why it’s a total game-changer for small business owners, content creators, and entrepreneurs who don’t have time to waste.
Whether you're researching industry trends, gathering data for a blog post, or planning a product launch, Perplexity delivers fast, accurate, source-backed answers so you can cut the fluff and get to the good stuff.
✨ Bonus: This is part of my AI Essentials series where I teach you how to actually use today's best AI tools in real time, so you can feel confident (not confused!)
IN THIS EPISODE, I COVER:
➔ What makes Perplexity different from ChatGPT or Google (and when to use it)
➔ How to use search modes like Deep Research, Academic Search & Collections
➔ Real-world use cases for market research, content creation, competitor analysis & more
➔ Pro tips to get better results (and avoid common mistakes with AI search)
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
📌 Perplexity → https://www.perplexity.ai/
📌 AI Evergreen Content Machine → Join the Waitlist
📌 Watch the full YouTube tutorial for this episode → Click here
📌 Done-For-You Custom GPT Builds → Sign Up Here
🎙️ RELATED EPISODES OF TECH SAVVY 101: AI & AUTOMATION MADE SIMPLE:
- Episode #105: ChatGPT Prompt Writing Tips: How to Get Juicy Results Every Time
- Episode #127: Claude Tutorial: The AI Assistant That’s Changing the Game
- Episode #130: Gemini vs ChatGPT: Which AI Is Better for Visual Content?
- Episode #131: Is Jasper AI the Ultimate Solution for Marketing Content Creation?
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:
00:46 – Introducing Perplexity: The AI Search Tool
01:49 – Getting Started with Perplexity
11:31 – Perplexity vs. ChatGPT: A Comparative Analysis
17:12 – Advanced Features of Perplexity
18:42 – Real-World Use Cases for Perplexity
21:11 – Pro Tips for Using Perplexity Effectively
23:24 – Limitations of Perplexity
24:49 – Con
📲 Send us a text! Let us know what AI + Automation Topics you want to learn about next!
LET'S CONNECT
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah Baker (00:00):
Hey there.
Welcome back to Tech Savvy 101: AI Automation Made Simple. (00:00):
undefined
I'm your host, Sarah Baker, yourtech savvy bestie, who's here to
help you simplify your business,embrace automation and save
hours every week.
Today I'm excited to continueour AI Essentials miniseries,
where we're exploring powerfulAI tools beyond just ChatGPT.
(00:21):
In this series, I'm sharing myscreen and giving you hands-on
tutorials of the most valuableAI platforms that can transform
how you work and create contentin your business.
Each tool in this series offersunique capabilities that might
be perfect for specific tasks inyour business.
By the end of this mini series,you'll have a complete AI
toolkit at your fingertips, andknow exactly which tool to use
(00:44):
for different situations.
In today's episode, we're divinginto Perplexity, an incredible
AI search tool that couldcompletely transform how you do
business and find informationonline.
If you're listening to thisepisode right now, don't worry,
you'll find the YouTube link forthis episode in the show notes.
Feel free to listen along rightnow and then grab the link
afterwards to see the visualdemonstration.
(01:06):
According to a recent report byStanford's HAI institute, the
average professional spends nineand a half hours per week
searching for information andconducting research.
That is basically an entireworkday every week just looking
for stuff.
So what if you could cut thattime in half or even more?
(01:27):
That's exactly what perplexitycan help you do.
By the end of this tutorial,you'll understand exactly what
perplexity is, how it differsfrom traditional search engines
and ChatGPT, and mostimportantly, I'll show you in
real time how to use it to findinformation faster and make
better decisions for yourbusiness.
Let's dive in.
(01:49):
Let me start off by sharing myscreen and showing you what
perplexity actually is.
So as you can see, I'm atperplexity.ai, which is where
you can access perplexitydirectly.
So it looks a little bit like asearch engine, and that's
because it essentially is, butwith a major AI upgrade.
Unlike traditional searchengines like Google that give
(02:09):
you a list of links to sortthrough, perplexity uses AI to
analyze information from acrossthe web and generate a complete
summarized answer to yourquestion.
And unlike ChatGPT, perplexityactively searches the web to
provide up-to-date informationwith sources.
I think we've all probablyexperienced having ChatGPT
(02:32):
hallucinate and make upinformation on us.
It's never fun.
Perplexity was founded in Augustof 2022, and as of early 2024,
it had over 10 million monthlyactive users.
The company recently raised$73.6million in funding led by IVP,
with the involvement of notableinvestors, including Jeff Bezos
(02:55):
and NVIDIA.
This puts their valuation ataround$520 million.
So this is definitely a companyto watch.
When you first get toperplexity, it's going to walk
you through what to expect.
It's going to tell you thatanswers are always accurate and
always cited.
It's going to promise to giveyou a citation in every
(03:16):
response.
Very reassuring.
It's going to offer to upgradeyou to Pro, which is$20 a month,
very similar to Claude Pro orChatGPT Pro.
With the free account, you cancontinue and get unlimited free
searches, three pro searches perday, the fast free AI model, and
(03:37):
you can upload up to three filesper day.
The difference with theprofessional level is that you
get to unlock the fullcapabilities of perplexity and
enjoy the new, latest andgreatest features as they are
added.
This includes unlimited freesearches, up to 300 pro searches
per day.
(03:58):
You can choose a smarter ai.
You can use deep seek R1, OpenAIo3-mini, Claude 3.7 sonnet,
sonar or more.
You can upload unlimited files.
You can search for your files inspaces, and you have custom
knowledge hubs and collaborativespaces.
So if you are just gettingstarted, check it out in the
(04:19):
free version, and if you reallylove it, you can always upgrade
to pro at a later time.
And then finally, it's alwaysworth noting that there is a
really great mobile app for bothApple and Android.
So once you get to the mainsearch, it is very similar to if
you are using ChatGPT or Claude.
You can enter your query or yoursearch into the main search box
(04:42):
right in the middle, and over onthe left hand side, you'll see
that you can start a new thread.
Go home, go to discover, go tospaces, or go to the library.
You'll also find that all ofyour past searches will appear
on the left hand side.
Again, very similar if you'reusing ChatGPT or Claude already.
All right, let's see perplexityin action by running some
(05:03):
searches.
So as you can see, just byclicking within the box, it's
already giving me some of thethings that people are searching
for.
Some of the top searches as ofthe time that I'm recording this
episode include (05:14):
Trump's new tariffs announced tomorrow.
Myanmar earthquake death tollupdate, Hooters filing for
bankruptcy, Wisconsin SupremeCourt race spending.
Eurozone inflation falls to2.2%.
So these are all, and you cansee with a little arrow pointing
up to the left.
These are all trending searchesthat people are openly searching
(05:35):
for.
SpaceX's Polar Orbit MissionOpenAI secures$40 billion
SoftBank funding.
let's Look for OpenAI Secures$40billion SoftBank funding.
So if I click on that, it'sgoing to give me the answer and
it's going to cite all of thesources across the top.
It's giving me a source fromYahoo.
(05:55):
It's giving me a source fromCapacity Media.
It's giving me a source fromEuro News, and then it's got six
other sources.
And it's giving me all of theinformation and it's also giving
me a, people also ask down atthe bottom.
Now if you are doing research,these are also phenomenal things
to look at.
How will OpenAI use the$40billion in funding?
(06:16):
What are the main goals of theStargate project?
How does this funding roundimpact open AI's valuation?
What role will SoftBank play inopen AI's future?
How does this funding compare toother major tech investments?
Just like we've talked about inprior episodes where I've talked
about keyword research or SEO,looking at similar questions
that people also ask can giveyou other ideas for content end
(06:40):
as well as keywords.
So by looking at not only theprimary question, but the
secondary questions, these arephenomenal ways to find, content
ideas.
But most importantly, whenyou're on here and you start
looking at the sources.
You have total trust that theinformation that you're getting
(07:01):
is valid, which I know is anongoing issue with ChatGPT and
even sometimes Claude, that ittends to take creative liberties
with information sometimes.
So with perplexity, you haveeliminated that issue because it
is providing you the sources andlinking directly to the other
articles.
You have the ability also toexport the answer as well as
(07:22):
share the link or rewrite it.
And when you have the ability torewrite it, you can rewrite it
using a variety of different AItools, including Sonar, which is
a perplexity tool, GPT-4o, whichis openAI or ChatGPT, Claude,
Gemini, which is Google.
I'll have another episode onthat soon, and so it allows you
to export the information fromthis search into multiple AI
(07:48):
tools, which is really, reallycool.
A study by the Reuters Institutefound that 65% of professionals
are concerned about thereliability of information from
AI systems without clearsourcing.
Perplexity directly addressesthis concern by showing exactly
where its information comesfrom.
Now, let's look at another keyfeature, the different search
(08:09):
modes.
Perplexity offers different waysto search.
There's the web feature.
This searches across the entireinternet.
There's also focus.
This lets you focus on specifictypes of sources like academic
writing or news.
There are collections.
These are curated sources onspecific topics.
There's pro.
This uses their most powerful AImodel.
(08:30):
Like I mentioned earlier, if youare on the free plan, you have
three pro searches per day.
So, let's see how to do this.
When you're on the main homesearch page, you click on the
Little Globe.
And let it know what type ofsearch you'd like to do.
So you can do a web search, anacademic search where it's gonna
search through academic papersor a social search where it can
(08:54):
go through discussions andopinions and just let it know
what type of search you want todo.
You can also click to do deepresearch.
If you're on the free plan, youhave three deep research
searches per day, and if you'reon the pro plan you can also
click pro on or off to do threeenhanced queries remaining per
day if you have the free plan.
(09:16):
So you can toggle all of theseon and off to let it know what
type of search you'd like to do.
So for example, if I wanted todo an academic search than the
little graduation cap will popup to let it know that now I'm
doing a web search and anacademic search, and if I click
(09:39):
on deep research, that will turnthat teal color to let me know
that I'm also doing a deepresearch.
And then I can type in my queryand it will give me my results.
So let's see what we're going tosearch for here.
So what I have typed into thesearch field is impact of
evergreen content on smallbusiness sales, because I have
selected deep research and alsobecause I have.
(10:02):
Put on the academic focus, ithas actually let me know.
Deep research takes up to 30minutes to thoroughly research,
analyze, and reflect.
It is also putting upinformation to let me know.
I have found several articlesdiscussing the impact of
evergreen content on smallbusiness sales, highlighting how
it can lead to increased organictraffic and brand authority.
It's updating it as I'm reading,which is really cool.
(10:24):
Bottom line, it's taking, it'sgonna take about 30 minutes to
do the full amount of work forme, but that 30 minutes is so
valuable because that's 30minutes that I'm not.
Doing that work, right?
So in that 30 minutes I can setit and forget it.
I can go work on my own businessand do other stuff that I can't
have AI do for me, and then in30 minutes I can come back and
(10:47):
I'm going to have a treasuretrove of information that I can
then go through and apply to mybusiness.
In this case, I'll be able totake this content and apply it
directly to my course AIEvergreen content machine.
So this is going to be valuableand will probably save me dozens
(11:08):
and dozens of hours, and I'll beable to turn this into content
that applies directly to mycourse.
So I am super excited to seewhat it comes up with, and I'm
able to do that all on the freeplan.
I have three deep research andthree pro tasks per day.
So if you use those reallystrategically, then you don't
even need to upgrade to the paidplan.
(11:31):
Now let's do a side by sidecomparison of perplexity with
ChatGPT to see how they handlethe same questions differently.
I've got ChatGPT open in one taband perplexity in another.
I.
According to a benchmark studyconducted by AI researchers at
Cornell Tech, Perplexityresponses contain 23% more
up-to-date information thanChatGPT When asked about recent
(11:54):
events or trends, this isbecause perplexity actively
searches the web for the latestinformation, while ChatGPT is
often limited to what it learnedduring training.
So let's start with a questionabout a recent event.
What were the key techannouncements at CES this year?
So here are the results.
As you can see, perplexity hasgiven us quite the list about
(12:17):
the key tech announcements atCES.
They've given us artificialintelligence innovations,
personal computing, displaytechnology, gaming hardware,
smart home, quantum computingand robotics, automotive
technology.
They've included the"people alsoask" list of questions, and then
they've also given us all of thesources, which are all active
(12:40):
links, so that if we'reinterested in any of this
information, we can link rightto those articles and continue
reading.
I would say that this isprobably the biggest difference.
Here is the ChatGPT response.
They've also broken it down intoartificial intelligence and
computing, consumer electronics,automotive technology, robotics
and smart home health andsustainability, including
(13:01):
sources which is great, assometimes ChatGPT does not
include sources.
In this case it did, which isfantastic.
This is a pretty black and whiteexample because it is something
that has a lot of sources on theinternet.
With tech announcements at CES.
I have found when I'm lookingfor examples of something for
maybe a blog post or a podcastor something else, if I don't
(13:25):
explicitly ask ChatGPT Forsources, oftentimes it does not
include sources and that iswhere we enter at the gray area
where ChatGPT sometimes willmake up information.
Whereas perplexity will not makeup information and will always
include the sources.
For this example ChatGPT did agreat job and included the
sources because there are tonsand tons of examples of
(13:48):
announcements at CES and it wasable to remember to include the
sources.
Let's try another example.
Let's ask them both.
What are the pros and cons ofusing AI tools for content
creation?
Now this is an example whereChatGPT has not given us any
sources.
Because the only question Iasked were, what are the pros
and cons of using AI tools forcontent creation?
(14:11):
So it has given me a list,massive time saver, consistent
output, SEO optimizationsupport, great for repurposing,
affordable scale, eliminatingthe where do I start feeling,
and then a list of cons.
And it's also summarized bottomline, AI is your content
assistant, not your replacement.
However, there are no sources.
This is just ChatGPT giving me apros and cons list if I want
(14:35):
ChatGPT to include directsources.
I now have to go back and forthwith ChatGPT and say, please
provide sources, please provideexamples, and do a little bit of
back and forth in order to getthat exact output that I want.
Now, if I flip over and look atperplexity.
It has given me, again, 21sources.
It's given me all of the sourcesright at the top.
(14:58):
It's giving me the pros and conslist, and the content overall is
similar, cost effectiveness,personalization, SEO,
optimization, consistency,accessibility.
So the overall pros and conslist are probably, you know,
relatively similar just fromscanning through, but I have
more confidence in the contentcoming out of perplexity because
(15:18):
it's pulled together this listfrom 21 sources instead of just
making it up from ChatGPT.
So overall, I would use theinformation from perplexity
because it's backed by 21sources and it has that always
helpful list of"people alsoask," which gives you so many
more ideas for additionalcontent.
(15:40):
Also, I love that you can exportas a PDF.
Well, you can export as amarkdown, as a.docx or a PDF.
So instead of having toconstantly cut and paste, cut
and paste, cut and paste into aGoogle Doc, it's a little bit
easier to get the content out ofperplexity if you are going to
work on it in another form.
And then you can also share thelink, copy and paste.
It is a little bit easier towork on it that way.
(16:02):
So in my opinion, the format inwhich they structure their
answers, the specificity of theexamples, obviously the citation
of the sources, and then overallhow comprehensive the answers
are, are all a little bit morecomprehensive in perplexity.
While both tools are impressive.
You can see that they servesomewhat different purposes.
(16:25):
Perplexity excels at providingup-to-date information,
obviously citing sourcestransparently, answering factual
questions with very specificdetails, and finding the latest
statistics and data.
Where ChatGPT is often betterfor creative writing tasks,
generating ideas from scratch,personalized advice based on
(16:48):
your situation, as well aslonger conversations with follow
up questions.
A 2023 user study by usabilityhub found that participants were
37% more likely to trustinformation from perplexity
compared to ChatGPT due to thevisible sources and citations.
In this case, the trust factoris crucial when using AI for
(17:10):
business research and decisionmaking.
Let's do a quick overview ofsome of perplexity more advanced
features that really set itapart from both traditional
search engines and other AItools.
Feature#1 is document upload andanalysis.
If you have the pro version, youcan upload documents for
perplexity to analyze.
This is similar to what we sawwith Claude in our previous
(17:30):
episode, but with the additionalbenefit that Perplexity can
combine your documentinformation with internet
searches.
Feature#2 is co-pilot forvarious tasks.
Perplexity offers specializedco-pilots for different tasks,
including writing, coding, dataanalysis, and even travel
planning.
Feature#3 is collections.
(17:52):
Perplexity's collections featureallows you to search within
curated sets of high qualitysources on very specific topics.
This is particularly valuablefor specialized research.
According to Perplexity's owndata, using the collections
feature increases the accuracyof responses by approximately
22% for specialized topicscompared to generalized web
(18:15):
searches.
Feature#4 is the Perplexitymobile app.
Perplexity also offers a mobileapp that lets you search on the
go.
What's especially cool aboutthis is that you can use the
camera to take pictures and askquestions about what you're
seeing, like identifying a plantor a landmark or a product.
The mobile app has beendownloaded over 1.5 million
(18:37):
times since its launch andmaintains an impressive 4.8 star
rating on the app store.
Now let's dive into some realworld use cases.
So use case#1 is obviouslymarket research.
Let's say you want to understandthe current landscape of online
courses in the productivityspace.
You could type in:"what are thetop selling online courses about
productivity and timemanagement?
(18:58):
Include price points and keyfeatures." This kind of research
would typically take hours ofbrowsing different platforms,
but perplexity gives us acomprehensive overview in a
matter of seconds.
Use case#2 is content creationresearch.
When creating content, findingstatistics and trends is
essential.
So how can you use perplexity?
(19:20):
You could type in somethinglike:"what are the latest
statistics about email marketingopen rates by industry?
Include data from the last 12months." Perplexity can help you
pull data from multiple sourcesand present it in an organized
way.
This makes creating wellresearched content so much
faster, and if you find that thedata you're getting isn't what
you're looking for, don't beafraid to go back and push back
(19:43):
on perplexity and say, actually,can you please provide
information for small businessesor information for businesses
with 20 to 50 employees.
If you are looking for somethingspecific, just ask.
You don't ask, you don't getAccording to a study by Orbit
Media content that includesspecific statistics, gets 149%
(20:06):
more social shares, then contentwithout data points.
So using perplexity makes itmuch easier to find these
valuable statistics.
Use case#3 is competitiveanalysis.
Perplexity is also your gamechanging tool for researching
your competitors.
You could type in somethinglike:"what are the main features
and pricing of the top fiveemail marketing platforms for
(20:29):
small businesses." This willgive you a quick overview of the
competitive landscape withouthaving to visit multiple
websites and compile theinformation yourself.
Just think for a minute how manyhours that will save you.
Pretty impressive, right?
Use case#4 is problem solving.
So how can perplexity help you?
If you are having an issue withyour email deliverability, all
(20:50):
of a sudden you go from havinggreat email deliverability and
open rates to terrible.
You could ask perplexity:"whatare some common reasons why
email deliverability and openrates might suddenly drop, and
how can I fix these issues?" Thestructured source-backed answers
are going to provide youactionable advice that you can
actually implement, right away.
(21:11):
Based off of extensive use ofperplexity, here are some pro
tips that might help you getbetter results.
Tip#1 (21:17):
be specific in your questions.
The more specific your question,the better the answer that you
are likely to get.
If you are vague and you ask foremail marketing tips.
You're gonna get really vagueanswers, but if you ask for
really specific tips for smallmarketing and help with
(21:37):
increasing your open rates andyour delivery rates and your
click-through rates, you willget really specific results.
Tip#2 (21:45):
use follow up questions effectively.
As I mentioned just a fewminutes ago, if you are not
getting the exact, really juicyresults that you are looking
for, don't be afraid to followup and ask for more.
Perplexity maintains contextbetween searches, meaning it
remembers what you asked before.
(22:05):
You can ask follow up questionsto dig a little deeper.
Tip#3 is to choose the rightsearch mode.
As I showed earlier in thisepisode, you can do a web
search, an academic search, asocial search, deep research,
pro search.
So use the right search for theright types of questions.
Use a web search if you're doinga general question, an academic
search for research basedquestions.
(22:27):
Don't forget how to togglethrough, and that you can also
stack the different questiontypes on top of each other, and
you'll get really juicy resultsif you do that.
Tip#4 is to save your valuablesearches, especially if you are
on the free plan.
You get three deep research andthree pro searches per day, so
make the most of them.
(22:47):
According to perplexity userdata, people who utilize
multiple search modes get 34%more comprehensive answers than
those who stick with the defaultmode, which is the web search.
As with the example that Ishowed where I was doing
research for my own AI evergreencontent machine course, where I
stacked deep research withresearch with a web search, and
(23:08):
it's still going, as I'mrecording the rest of this
episode, it's still providingcontent and I know I'm going to
have some amazing content towork with because it is still
plugging along and pulling somereally, really juicy content for
me.
Next up I want to talk aboutlimitations to be aware of
because obviously whileperplexity is an incredibly
(23:30):
powerful tool, it's important tounderstand what it cannot do.
The first limitation to be awareof is that source quality does
vary.
Perplexity is only as good asthe sources it finds.
So if you have a very nichetopic, the sources that it is
pulling from might be limited.
So be aware to always check thesources that perplexity is
(23:53):
pulling from.
Limitation#2 is the potentialfor bias.
Like all AI systems forperplexity can reflect biases in
the information it finds online.
A peer-reviewed study publishedin AI ethics Journal found that
search-based AI systems likeperplexity can reduce certain
types of bias compared to closedlanguage models, but they may
still amplify popular viewpointsfrom the web.
(24:15):
Limitation#3 is complexreasoning.
For questions requiring complexreasoning or personal judgment,
perplexity might not be the besttool.
Remember, you always still needto include your own human
thought process and your ownpersonal opinion.
Limitation#4 is that you stillneed human verification.
Despite the sources, it is stillvery important to verify crucial
(24:37):
information.
As I always talk about, AI isyour unpaid intern, Chad and you
are the CEO of your business.
So always, always, always triplecheck before you publish
anything that was created usingAI.
And there you have it, acomprehensive walkthrough of
Perplexity from basic featuresto advanced strategies.
As you've seen, Perplexityoffers a powerful alternative to
(24:59):
both traditional search enginesand other AI tools like ChatGPT.
What makes Perplexityparticularly valuable is how it
bridges the gap between searchengines and AI assistance.
You get that real-timeinformation access of a search
engine with the summarizationand natural language
capabilities of an AI tool.
According to a Deloitte digitalreport, AI powered search
(25:22):
engines like perplexity canreduce research time by up to
70% compared to traditionalsearch methods.
If you found this tutorialhelpful, make sure to check out
the full video demonstration onmy YouTube channel.
The link is in the show notes.
And don't forget to subscribeand leave a review.
It helps other tech curiousentrepreneurs to find the show.
(25:42):
This is part of our ongoing AIalternatives miniseries, where
we're exploring powerful AItools beyond just ChatGPT.
For more in-depth training onusing AI tools in your business,
check out my AI EvergreenContent Machine course.
I'll show you my complete systemfor creating content that works
for your business around theclock, including how to
integrate tools like perplexityinto your research workflow.
(26:04):
The link is in the show notes.
Thank you so much for tuninginto today's episode of Tech
Savvy 101.
I'll see you really soon.
Hey there.
Welcome back to Tech Savvy 101: AI Automation Made Simple. (00:00):
undefined
I'm your host, Sarah Baker, yourtech savvy bestie, who's here to
help you simplify your business,embrace automation and save
hours every week.
Today I'm excited to continueour AI Essentials miniseries,
where we're exploring powerfulAI tools beyond just ChatGPT.
(00:21):
In this series, I'm sharing myscreen and giving you hands-on
tutorials of the most valuableAI platforms that can transform
how you work and create contentin your business.
Each tool in this series offersunique capabilities that might
be perfect for specific tasks inyour business.
By the end of this mini series,you'll have a complete AI
toolkit at your fingertips, andknow exactly which tool to use
(00:44):
for different situations.
In today's episode, we're divinginto Perplexity, an incredible
AI search tool that couldcompletely transform how you do
business and find informationonline.
If you're listening to thisepisode right now, don't worry,
you'll find the YouTube link forthis episode in the show notes.
Feel free to listen along rightnow and then grab the link
afterwards to see the visualdemonstration.
(01:06):
According to a recent report byStanford's HAI institute, the
average professional spends nineand a half hours per week
searching for information andconducting research.
That is basically an entireworkday every week just looking
for stuff.
So what if you could cut thattime in half or even more?
(01:27):
That's exactly what perplexitycan help you do.
By the end of this tutorial,you'll understand exactly what
perplexity is, how it differsfrom traditional search engines
and ChatGPT, and mostimportantly, I'll show you in
real time how to use it to findinformation faster and make
better decisions for yourbusiness.
Let's dive in.
(01:49):
Let me start off by sharing myscreen and showing you what
perplexity actually is.
So as you can see, I'm atperplexity.ai, which is where
you can access perplexitydirectly.
So it looks a little bit like asearch engine, and that's
because it essentially is, butwith a major AI upgrade.
Unlike traditional searchengines like Google that give
(02:09):
you a list of links to sortthrough, perplexity uses AI to
analyze information from acrossthe web and generate a complete
summarized answer to yourquestion.
And unlike ChatGPT, perplexityactively searches the web to
provide up-to-date informationwith sources.
I think we've all probablyexperienced having ChatGPT
(02:32):
hallucinate and make upinformation on us.
It's never fun.
Perplexity was founded in Augustof 2022, and as of early 2024,
it had over 10 million monthlyactive users.
The company recently raised$73.6million in funding led by IVP,
with the involvement of notableinvestors, including Jeff Bezos
(02:55):
and NVIDIA.
This puts their valuation ataround$520 million.
So this is definitely a companyto watch.
When you first get toperplexity, it's going to walk
you through what to expect.
It's going to tell you thatanswers are always accurate and
always cited.
It's going to promise to giveyou a citation in every
(03:16):
response.
Very reassuring.
It's going to offer to upgradeyou to Pro, which is$20 a month,
very similar to Claude Pro orChatGPT Pro.
With the free account, you cancontinue and get unlimited free
searches, three pro searches perday, the fast free AI model, and
(03:37):
you can upload up to three filesper day.
The difference with theprofessional level is that you
get to unlock the fullcapabilities of perplexity and
enjoy the new, latest andgreatest features as they are
added.
This includes unlimited freesearches, up to 300 pro searches
per day.
(03:58):
You can choose a smarter ai.
You can use deep seek R1, OpenAIo3-mini, Claude 3.7 sonnet,
sonar or more.
You can upload unlimited files.
You can search for your files inspaces, and you have custom
knowledge hubs and collaborativespaces.
So if you are just gettingstarted, check it out in the
(04:19):
free version, and if you reallylove it, you can always upgrade
to pro at a later time.
And then finally, it's alwaysworth noting that there is a
really great mobile app for bothApple and Android.
So once you get to the mainsearch, it is very similar to if
you are using ChatGPT or Claude.
You can enter your query or yoursearch into the main search box
(04:42):
right in the middle, and over onthe left hand side, you'll see
that you can start a new thread.
Go home, go to discover, go tospaces, or go to the library.
You'll also find that all ofyour past searches will appear
on the left hand side.
Again, very similar if you'reusing ChatGPT or Claude already.
All right, let's see perplexityin action by running some
(05:03):
searches.
So as you can see, just byclicking within the box, it's
already giving me some of thethings that people are searching
for.
Some of the top searches as ofthe time that I'm recording this
episode include (05:14):
Trump's new tariffs announced tomorrow.
Myanmar earthquake death tollupdate, Hooters filing for
bankruptcy, Wisconsin SupremeCourt race spending.
Eurozone inflation falls to2.2%.
So these are all, and you cansee with a little arrow pointing
up to the left.
These are all trending searchesthat people are openly searching
(05:35):
for.
SpaceX's Polar Orbit MissionOpenAI secures$40 billion
SoftBank funding.
let's Look for OpenAI Secures$40billion SoftBank funding.
So if I click on that, it'sgoing to give me the answer and
it's going to cite all of thesources across the top.
It's giving me a source fromYahoo.
(05:55):
It's giving me a source fromCapacity Media.
It's giving me a source fromEuro News, and then it's got six
other sources.
And it's giving me all of theinformation and it's also giving
me a, people also ask down atthe bottom.
Now if you are doing research,these are also phenomenal things
to look at.
How will OpenAI use the$40billion in funding?
(06:16):
What are the main goals of theStargate project?
How does this funding roundimpact open AI's valuation?
What role will SoftBank play inopen AI's future?
How does this funding compare toother major tech investments?
Just like we've talked about inprior episodes where I've talked
about keyword research or SEO,looking at similar questions
that people also ask can giveyou other ideas for content end
(06:40):
as well as keywords.
So by looking at not only theprimary question, but the
secondary questions, these arephenomenal ways to find, content
ideas.
But most importantly, whenyou're on here and you start
looking at the sources.
You have total trust that theinformation that you're getting
(07:01):
is valid, which I know is anongoing issue with ChatGPT and
even sometimes Claude, that ittends to take creative liberties
with information sometimes.
So with perplexity, you haveeliminated that issue because it
is providing you the sources andlinking directly to the other
articles.
You have the ability also toexport the answer as well as
(07:22):
share the link or rewrite it.
And when you have the ability torewrite it, you can rewrite it
using a variety of different AItools, including Sonar, which is
a perplexity tool, GPT-4o, whichis openAI or ChatGPT, Claude,
Gemini, which is Google.
I'll have another episode onthat soon, and so it allows you
to export the information fromthis search into multiple AI
(07:48):
tools, which is really, reallycool.
A study by the Reuters Institutefound that 65% of professionals
are concerned about thereliability of information from
AI systems without clearsourcing.
Perplexity directly addressesthis concern by showing exactly
where its information comesfrom.
Now, let's look at another keyfeature, the different search
(08:09):
modes.
Perplexity offers different waysto search.
There's the web feature.
This searches across the entireinternet.
There's also focus.
This lets you focus on specifictypes of sources like academic
writing or news.
There are collections.
These are curated sources onspecific topics.
There's pro.
This uses their most powerful AImodel.
(08:30):
Like I mentioned earlier, if youare on the free plan, you have
three pro searches per day.
So, let's see how to do this.
When you're on the main homesearch page, you click on the
Little Globe.
And let it know what type ofsearch you'd like to do.
So you can do a web search, anacademic search where it's gonna
search through academic papersor a social search where it can
(08:54):
go through discussions andopinions and just let it know
what type of search you want todo.
You can also click to do deepresearch.
If you're on the free plan, youhave three deep research
searches per day, and if you'reon the pro plan you can also
click pro on or off to do threeenhanced queries remaining per
day if you have the free plan.
(09:16):
So you can toggle all of theseon and off to let it know what
type of search you'd like to do.
So for example, if I wanted todo an academic search than the
little graduation cap will popup to let it know that now I'm
doing a web search and anacademic search, and if I click
(09:39):
on deep research, that will turnthat teal color to let me know
that I'm also doing a deepresearch.
And then I can type in my queryand it will give me my results.
So let's see what we're going tosearch for here.
So what I have typed into thesearch field is impact of
evergreen content on smallbusiness sales, because I have
selected deep research and alsobecause I have.
(10:02):
Put on the academic focus, ithas actually let me know.
Deep research takes up to 30minutes to thoroughly research,
analyze, and reflect.
It is also putting upinformation to let me know.
I have found several articlesdiscussing the impact of
evergreen content on smallbusiness sales, highlighting how
it can lead to increased organictraffic and brand authority.
It's updating it as I'm reading,which is really cool.
(10:24):
Bottom line, it's taking, it'sgonna take about 30 minutes to
do the full amount of work forme, but that 30 minutes is so
valuable because that's 30minutes that I'm not.
Doing that work, right?
So in that 30 minutes I can setit and forget it.
I can go work on my own businessand do other stuff that I can't
have AI do for me, and then in30 minutes I can come back and
(10:47):
I'm going to have a treasuretrove of information that I can
then go through and apply to mybusiness.
In this case, I'll be able totake this content and apply it
directly to my course AIEvergreen content machine.
So this is going to be valuableand will probably save me dozens
(11:08):
and dozens of hours, and I'll beable to turn this into content
that applies directly to mycourse.
So I am super excited to seewhat it comes up with, and I'm
able to do that all on the freeplan.
I have three deep research andthree pro tasks per day.
So if you use those reallystrategically, then you don't
even need to upgrade to the paidplan.
(11:31):
Now let's do a side by sidecomparison of perplexity with
ChatGPT to see how they handlethe same questions differently.
I've got ChatGPT open in one taband perplexity in another.
I.
According to a benchmark studyconducted by AI researchers at
Cornell Tech, Perplexityresponses contain 23% more
up-to-date information thanChatGPT When asked about recent
(11:54):
events or trends, this isbecause perplexity actively
searches the web for the latestinformation, while ChatGPT is
often limited to what it learnedduring training.
So let's start with a questionabout a recent event.
What were the key techannouncements at CES this year?
So here are the results.
As you can see, perplexity hasgiven us quite the list about
(12:17):
the key tech announcements atCES.
They've given us artificialintelligence innovations,
personal computing, displaytechnology, gaming hardware,
smart home, quantum computingand robotics, automotive
technology.
They've included the"people alsoask" list of questions, and then
they've also given us all of thesources, which are all active
(12:40):
links, so that if we'reinterested in any of this
information, we can link rightto those articles and continue
reading.
I would say that this isprobably the biggest difference.
Here is the ChatGPT response.
They've also broken it down intoartificial intelligence and
computing, consumer electronics,automotive technology, robotics
and smart home health andsustainability, including
(13:01):
sources which is great, assometimes ChatGPT does not
include sources.
In this case it did, which isfantastic.
This is a pretty black and whiteexample because it is something
that has a lot of sources on theinternet.
With tech announcements at CES.
I have found when I'm lookingfor examples of something for
maybe a blog post or a podcastor something else, if I don't
(13:25):
explicitly ask ChatGPT Forsources, oftentimes it does not
include sources and that iswhere we enter at the gray area
where ChatGPT sometimes willmake up information.
Whereas perplexity will not makeup information and will always
include the sources.
For this example ChatGPT did agreat job and included the
sources because there are tonsand tons of examples of
(13:48):
announcements at CES and it wasable to remember to include the
sources.
Let's try another example.
Let's ask them both.
What are the pros and cons ofusing AI tools for content
creation?
Now this is an example whereChatGPT has not given us any
sources.
Because the only question Iasked were, what are the pros
and cons of using AI tools forcontent creation?
(14:11):
So it has given me a list,massive time saver, consistent
output, SEO optimizationsupport, great for repurposing,
affordable scale, eliminatingthe where do I start feeling,
and then a list of cons.
And it's also summarized bottomline, AI is your content
assistant, not your replacement.
However, there are no sources.
This is just ChatGPT giving me apros and cons list if I want
(14:35):
ChatGPT to include directsources.
I now have to go back and forthwith ChatGPT and say, please
provide sources, please provideexamples, and do a little bit of
back and forth in order to getthat exact output that I want.
Now, if I flip over and look atperplexity.
It has given me, again, 21sources.
It's given me all of the sourcesright at the top.
(14:58):
It's giving me the pros and conslist, and the content overall is
similar, cost effectiveness,personalization, SEO,
optimization, consistency,accessibility.
So the overall pros and conslist are probably, you know,
relatively similar just fromscanning through, but I have
more confidence in the contentcoming out of perplexity because
(15:18):
it's pulled together this listfrom 21 sources instead of just
making it up from ChatGPT.
So overall, I would use theinformation from perplexity
because it's backed by 21sources and it has that always
helpful list of"people alsoask," which gives you so many
more ideas for additionalcontent.
(15:40):
Also, I love that you can exportas a PDF.
Well, you can export as amarkdown, as a.docx or a PDF.
So instead of having toconstantly cut and paste, cut
and paste, cut and paste into aGoogle Doc, it's a little bit
easier to get the content out ofperplexity if you are going to
work on it in another form.
And then you can also share thelink, copy and paste.
It is a little bit easier towork on it that way.
(16:02):
So in my opinion, the format inwhich they structure their
answers, the specificity of theexamples, obviously the citation
of the sources, and then overallhow comprehensive the answers
are, are all a little bit morecomprehensive in perplexity.
While both tools are impressive.
You can see that they servesomewhat different purposes.
(16:25):
Perplexity excels at providingup-to-date information,
obviously citing sourcestransparently, answering factual
questions with very specificdetails, and finding the latest
statistics and data.
Where ChatGPT is often betterfor creative writing tasks,
generating ideas from scratch,personalized advice based on
(16:48):
your situation, as well aslonger conversations with follow
up questions.
A 2023 user study by usabilityhub found that participants were
37% more likely to trustinformation from perplexity
compared to ChatGPT due to thevisible sources and citations.
In this case, the trust factoris crucial when using AI for
(17:10):
business research and decisionmaking.
Let's do a quick overview ofsome of perplexity more advanced
features that really set itapart from both traditional
search engines and other AItools.
Feature#1 is document upload andanalysis.
If you have the pro version, youcan upload documents for
perplexity to analyze.
This is similar to what we sawwith Claude in our previous
(17:30):
episode, but with the additionalbenefit that Perplexity can
combine your documentinformation with internet
searches.
Feature#2 is co-pilot forvarious tasks.
Perplexity offers specializedco-pilots for different tasks,
including writing, coding, dataanalysis, and even travel
planning.
Feature#3 is collections.
(17:52):
Perplexity's collections featureallows you to search within
curated sets of high qualitysources on very specific topics.
This is particularly valuablefor specialized research.
According to Perplexity's owndata, using the collections
feature increases the accuracyof responses by approximately
22% for specialized topicscompared to generalized web
(18:15):
searches.
Feature#4 is the Perplexitymobile app.
Perplexity also offers a mobileapp that lets you search on the
go.
What's especially cool aboutthis is that you can use the
camera to take pictures and askquestions about what you're
seeing, like identifying a plantor a landmark or a product.
The mobile app has beendownloaded over 1.5 million
(18:37):
times since its launch andmaintains an impressive 4.8 star
rating on the app store.
Now let's dive into some realworld use cases.
So use case#1 is obviouslymarket research.
Let's say you want to understandthe current landscape of online
courses in the productivityspace.
You could type in:"what are thetop selling online courses about
productivity and timemanagement?
(18:58):
Include price points and keyfeatures." This kind of research
would typically take hours ofbrowsing different platforms,
but perplexity gives us acomprehensive overview in a
matter of seconds.
Use case#2 is content creationresearch.
When creating content, findingstatistics and trends is
essential.
So how can you use perplexity?
(19:20):
You could type in somethinglike:"what are the latest
statistics about email marketingopen rates by industry?
Include data from the last 12months." Perplexity can help you
pull data from multiple sourcesand present it in an organized
way.
This makes creating wellresearched content so much
faster, and if you find that thedata you're getting isn't what
you're looking for, don't beafraid to go back and push back
(19:43):
on perplexity and say, actually,can you please provide
information for small businessesor information for businesses
with 20 to 50 employees.
If you are looking for somethingspecific, just ask.
You don't ask, you don't getAccording to a study by Orbit
Media content that includesspecific statistics, gets 149%
(20:06):
more social shares, then contentwithout data points.
So using perplexity makes itmuch easier to find these
valuable statistics.
Use case#3 is competitiveanalysis.
Perplexity is also your gamechanging tool for researching
your competitors.
You could type in somethinglike:"what are the main features
and pricing of the top fiveemail marketing platforms for
(20:29):
small businesses." This willgive you a quick overview of the
competitive landscape withouthaving to visit multiple
websites and compile theinformation yourself.
Just think for a minute how manyhours that will save you.
Pretty impressive, right?
Use case#4 is problem solving.
So how can perplexity help you?
If you are having an issue withyour email deliverability, all
(20:50):
of a sudden you go from havinggreat email deliverability and
open rates to terrible.
You could ask perplexity:"whatare some common reasons why
email deliverability and openrates might suddenly drop, and
how can I fix these issues?" Thestructured source-backed answers
are going to provide youactionable advice that you can
actually implement, right away.
(21:11):
Based off of extensive use ofperplexity, here are some pro
tips that might help you getbetter results.
Tip#1 (21:17):
be specific in your questions.
The more specific your question,the better the answer that you
are likely to get.
If you are vague and you ask foremail marketing tips.
You're gonna get really vagueanswers, but if you ask for
really specific tips for smallmarketing and help with
(21:37):
increasing your open rates andyour delivery rates and your
click-through rates, you willget really specific results.
Tip#2 (21:45):
use follow up questions effectively.
As I mentioned just a fewminutes ago, if you are not
getting the exact, really juicyresults that you are looking
for, don't be afraid to followup and ask for more.
Perplexity maintains contextbetween searches, meaning it
remembers what you asked before.
(22:05):
You can ask follow up questionsto dig a little deeper.
Tip#3 is to choose the rightsearch mode.
As I showed earlier in thisepisode, you can do a web
search, an academic search, asocial search, deep research,
pro search.
So use the right search for theright types of questions.
Use a web search if you're doinga general question, an academic
search for research basedquestions.
(22:27):
Don't forget how to togglethrough, and that you can also
stack the different questiontypes on top of each other, and
you'll get really juicy resultsif you do that.
Tip#4 is to save your valuablesearches, especially if you are
on the free plan.
You get three deep research andthree pro searches per day, so
make the most of them.
(22:47):
According to perplexity userdata, people who utilize
multiple search modes get 34%more comprehensive answers than
those who stick with the defaultmode, which is the web search.
As with the example that Ishowed where I was doing
research for my own AI evergreencontent machine course, where I
stacked deep research withresearch with a web search, and
(23:08):
it's still going, as I'mrecording the rest of this
episode, it's still providingcontent and I know I'm going to
have some amazing content towork with because it is still
plugging along and pulling somereally, really juicy content for
me.
Next up I want to talk aboutlimitations to be aware of
because obviously whileperplexity is an incredibly
(23:30):
powerful tool, it's important tounderstand what it cannot do.
The first limitation to be awareof is that source quality does
vary.
Perplexity is only as good asthe sources it finds.
So if you have a very nichetopic, the sources that it is
pulling from might be limited.
So be aware to always check thesources that perplexity is
(23:53):
pulling from.
Limitation#2 is the potentialfor bias.
Like all AI systems forperplexity can reflect biases in
the information it finds online.
A peer-reviewed study publishedin AI ethics Journal found that
search-based AI systems likeperplexity can reduce certain
types of bias compared to closedlanguage models, but they may
still amplify popular viewpointsfrom the web.
(24:15):
Limitation#3 is complexreasoning.
For questions requiring complexreasoning or personal judgment,
perplexity might not be the besttool.
Remember, you always still needto include your own human
thought process and your ownpersonal opinion.
Limitation#4 is that you stillneed human verification.
Despite the sources, it is stillvery important to verify crucial
(24:37):
information.
As I always talk about, AI isyour unpaid intern, Chad and you
are the CEO of your business.
So always, always, always triplecheck before you publish
anything that was created usingAI.
And there you have it, acomprehensive walkthrough of
Perplexity from basic featuresto advanced strategies.
As you've seen, Perplexityoffers a powerful alternative to
(24:59):
both traditional search enginesand other AI tools like ChatGPT.
What makes Perplexityparticularly valuable is how it
bridges the gap between searchengines and AI assistance.
You get that real-timeinformation access of a search
engine with the summarizationand natural language
capabilities of an AI tool.
According to a Deloitte digitalreport, AI powered search
(25:22):
engines like perplexity canreduce research time by up to
70% compared to traditionalsearch methods.
If you found this tutorialhelpful, make sure to check out
the full video demonstration onmy YouTube channel.
The link is in the show notes.
And don't forget to subscribeand leave a review.
It helps other tech curiousentrepreneurs to find the show.
(25:42):
This is part of our ongoing AIalternatives miniseries, where
we're exploring powerful AItools beyond just ChatGPT.
For more in-depth training onusing AI tools in your business,
check out my AI EvergreenContent Machine course.
I'll show you my complete systemfor creating content that works
for your business around theclock, including how to
integrate tools like perplexityinto your research workflow.
(26:04):
The link is in the show notes.
Thank you so much for tuninginto today's episode of Tech
Savvy 101.
I'll see you really soon.
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