Perplexity now lets you search files and web in one tool

Perplexity’s new enterprise search capabilities: Perplexity has introduced Internal Knowledge Search and Spaces, offering enhanced search functionality for enterprise users to combine internal and external information sources.

• Internal Knowledge Search allows Perplexity Pro and Enterprise Pro users to search across both their internal files and the web within a single platform.
• The feature is limited to specific files uploaded by users, rather than searching entire internal databases, focusing on the most valuable and important data.
• Users have a file upload limit (500 for Enterprise Pro users), which may be expanded in the future.
• Supported file formats include Excel sheets, Word documents, and PDFs.

Key benefits and early adoption: The new features aim to streamline research processes and boost productivity for enterprises by consolidating internal and external information sources.

• Early access customers, including Nvidia, Databricks, Dell, and others, have used the feature for various purposes such as due diligence, sales proposal preparation, and employee benefit information retrieval.
• Perplexity labels data sources to differentiate between website information and uploaded files, allowing users to trace information back to its origin.
• The company launched Enterprise Pro in April, offering additional security features like SOC2 certification, single sign-on, and user management.

Introducing Spaces for team collaboration: Perplexity’s Spaces feature enhances team research and organization capabilities within the platform.

• Spaces allows teams to share files and customize Perplexity’s AI assistant with specific instructions based on their data.
• Enterprise Pro users benefit from enhanced privacy measures, with files and searches in Spaces excluded from AI quality training by default.
• Perplexity plans to integrate third-party data from services like Crunchbase and FactSet, expanding the knowledge base for Enterprise Pro users with existing subscriptions to these services.

Perplexity’s approach to RAG: The Internal Knowledge Search and Spaces features represent Perplexity’s implementation of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) technology.

• Unlike traditional RAG systems that search extensive internal databases, Perplexity’s approach focuses on user-uploaded documents within their platform.
• This approach allows users to leverage their internal “ground truth” in searches while maintaining a more curated set of information.
• Perplexity faces competition from established RAG platform providers like Glean and Elastic, who have been offering similar services to enterprises.

Market impact and revenue model: Perplexity has been gaining traction in the search engine market and exploring new revenue streams.

• The company has been taking market share from traditional search engines like Google.
• Perplexity has implemented a revenue-sharing program with partners, primarily media companies, whose links appear in Perplexity search results.

Looking ahead: Potential implications for enterprise search: Perplexity’s new features may signal a shift in how enterprises approach information retrieval and knowledge management.

• The focus on user-curated internal data combined with web search could lead to more efficient and targeted information discovery processes.
• As Perplexity continues to expand its capabilities and partnerships, it may challenge established players in the enterprise search and knowledge management space.
• The success of these features could influence future developments in AI-powered search technologies, potentially prompting other companies to offer similar integrated internal and external search capabilities.