• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, November 13, 2024

United States users on Perplexity should begin seeing sponsored responses to queries this week. Whole Foods Market, Universal McCann, and PMG are some of the first brands to advertise.

Ads will appear as follow-up questions labeled as "sponsored" and appear on the side of the answer. Perplexity will answer the questions with its AI search technology.

Brands and sponsors will not write or edit answers to the query.

Perplexity intentionally chose these formats because it integrates advertising in a way that still protects the utility, accuracy and objectivity of answers.

"While brands are keen on understanding how their companies appear in AI answer engines like ours, we will avoid duplicating the SEO industry where people are implementing arbitrary tactics to improve their rankings at the expense of user utility," the company said. "We would rather give brands a transparent way to advertise through Perplexity that — rather than attempting to manipulate answers — encourages users to express their curiosity about a brand."