14 Perplexity AI Use Cases: The Search Engine You Didn’t Know Could Do So Much

Keeping up with the constant flow of updates can feel like a never-ending task, right? You’re probably scrolling through endless news and posts every day, and with more companies using AI to create the content, it’s only speeding up.

But AI isn’t just helping create content; it’s also changing how you find and access information. One tool that’s gaining popularity is Perplexity AI. It’s not your typical search engine but rather a smart combo of a chatbot and a search engine. It pulls together real-time, factual answers from multiple sources and presents them to you in a way that’s easy to understand.

But chances are, you haven’t yet realized just how much it can do. In this article, we’ll dive into all the different ways you can use Perplexity to level up your information-gathering, whether you’re looking for a quick answer or digging deep into research.

We'll cover:

1. How to Use Perplexity?

   • Setting Up Perplexity
   • Setting Perplexity as Your Default Search Engine

2. Applications of Perplexity

   1. Answer Engine
   2. Tracking Real-Time Events
   3. Price Comparison Shopping
   4. Property Market Research
   5. SEO Optimization
   6. Learning and Self-Education
   7. Customizable Outputs
   8. Summarizing Articles and Webpages
   9. Stock Market and Financial Research
   10. Google Alerts Replacement
   11. Creative Writing and Content Generation
   12. Legal and Professional Research
   13. Multimodal Capabilities
   14. Code Generation

Learning to use Generative AI? Try our free ChatGPT for Everyone course!

How to Use Perplexity?

Setting Up Perplexity

To get started with Perplexity, you need to set up an account first.

To do that:

1. Go to https://www.perplexity.ai/
2. Tap "Try Perplexity"
3. Set up your account
4. You're ready to go!

You Can Set Perplexity as Your Default Search Engine

You can use Perplexity on the original website, but another way to do it is to set up Perplexity as your default search engine.

Here's a video instruction that shows you how to do it on Google Chrome.

14 Use Cases

Now, let's get to the 14 ways you can use Perplexity in your daily life! We collected them in this summary table for you:

Application	Prompt	Example
Answer Engine	What is [topic or question]?	“When is the next iPhone release?” or “What are the health benefits of yoga?”
Tracking Real-Time Events	Can you provide real-time updates on [event]?	Hurricane updates or election results.
Price Comparison Shopping	Where can I find the best price for [product]?	Finding the best deals on laptops or smartphones.
Property Market Research	What are the property market trends in [location]?	Checking property ownership, trends, or recent transactions in a neighborhood.
SEO Optimization	Generate a list of keywords for optimizing content about [topic].	Creating keyword maps and optimized meta descriptions for blogs.
Learning and Self-Education	Can you explain [subject] in detail?	Learning to code, studying a new language, or exploring a design concept.
Customizable Outputs	Customize responses for [audience or needs].	Simplifying technical explanations for non-technical audiences.
Summarizing Articles and Webpages	Summarize the key points of [article or webpage].	Providing concise summaries of long articles or reports.
Stock Market and Financial Research	What is the current stock price and performance of [company]?	Tracking Tesla’s stock performance and comparing it to other companies.
Google Alerts Replacement	Set up notifications for [competitor/industry trends].	Monitoring competitors or industry updates automatically.
Creative Writing and Content Generation	Generate ideas for [type of content] on [topic].	Brainstorming blog posts, emails, scripts, or song lyrics.
Legal and Professional Research	Find relevant legal cases on [topic or law].	Quickly pulling up case laws and precedents for legal work.
Multimodal Capabilities	Analyze this [uploaded document or image] and provide insights.	Extracting insights from financial reports or visual data.
Code Generation	Write code for [specific task or language].	Generating Python code to analyze data or create scripts.

1. Answer Engine

One of the primary ways you can use Perplexity is as an answer engine. Ask it any question, and you’ll get a direct, comprehensive response, often complete with citations. Whether you're looking for quick facts or detailed information, Perplexity delivers.

Example: You can ask, “When is the next iPhone release?” or “What are the health benefits of yoga?” and immediately receive answers sourced from reliable references.

---

2. Tracking Real-Time Events

Do you need to stay updated on live events like weather conditions, elections, or sports scores? Perplexity can help you track real-time events, providing up-to-date information and timelines.

Example: If you want to know about the current status of a hurricane or election results, Perplexity can give you the latest updates with the ability to dig deeper as the event unfolds.

---

3. Price Comparison Shopping

You can also use Perplexity to compare product prices across multiple platforms. Instead of hopping from website to website, simply ask Perplexity for the best deals, and it will give you a real-time comparison.

Example: Searching for the best price on a laptop or smartphone becomes easier when Perplexity provides an instant comparison of prices from various retailers.

---

4. Property Market Research

If you're in the real estate industry or just curious about property trends, Perplexity can help you conduct fast and reliable market research. You can find out property ownership details, check market trends, or review recent transactions in seconds.

Example: Looking up who owns a particular property or seeing how many homes sold in a neighborhood last month is quick and easy with Perplexity’s real estate data capabilities.

---

5. SEO Optimization

If you’re working on SEO for your website, you can leverage Perplexity’s API to generate optimized content like meta descriptions and keyword maps. This can significantly speed up your workflow, allowing you to focus on other aspects of content creation.

Example: You can use Perplexity to create keyword maps and optimize your blog content for search engines, helping you rank higher in search results without the manual effort.

---

6. Learning and Self-Education

Perplexity is also an excellent tool for learning new skills or subjects. If you want a personalized learning experience, you can ask follow-up questions to dive deeper into topics and get thorough explanations.

Example: Whether you’re learning to code, design, or study a new language, Perplexity can act as an interactive tutor, guiding you with detailed responses to your questions and providing additional resources.

---

7. Customizable Outputs

Using Perplexity’s "Collections" feature, you can customize the way it responds to your queries. This allows you to tailor its answers to your specific needs, making it more accessible or personalized depending on the situation.

Example: If you need simpler explanations for a non-technical audience, you can customize the outputs to suit their understanding, creating a more user-friendly experience.

---

8. Summarizing Articles and Webpages

If you're overwhelmed by long articles or reports, Perplexity can help you by summarizing them. This feature saves you time by highlighting the key points, allowing you to grasp the essence of the content without reading through every detail.

Example: When you’re researching for a project and need to go through multiple lengthy articles, Perplexity can give you a concise summary of each, so you can quickly decide which sources are worth exploring further.

---

9. Stock Market and Financial Research

Perplexity Finance is specifically designed to help you track stock market trends, analyze company financials, and make comparisons across different companies. This makes it an invaluable tool for both professional investors and those just curious about financial markets.

Example: If you’re following Tesla’s stock performance and want to compare it to other tech companies, Perplexity will generate real-time data and detailed comparisons.

---

10. Google Alerts Replacement

Are you trying to stay ahead of competitors or keep up with industry trends? Perplexity lets you set up push notifications, which work like Google Alerts to keep you informed about relevant updates.

If you want to go further, you could create a bot using the Perplexity API and Cursor for market research—though that does require some coding skills!

Example: You can monitor your competitors’ activities or track key industry news, ensuring you’re always in the loop without needing to manually search for updates.

---

11. Creative Writing and Content Generation

If you need help with creative tasks like writing a blog post, script, or even song lyrics, Perplexity can assist you in drafting content. This feature saves you time while sparking creativity.

Example: Whether you’re drafting an email, brainstorming ideas for a blog post, or writing a scene for a play, Perplexity can help generate text, giving you a solid foundation to work from.

---

12. Legal and Professional Research

Professionals in the legal field can use Perplexity to streamline research processes. By quickly sourcing case laws, legal precedents, and professional guidelines, you can reduce the time spent on manual research.

Example: A lawyer preparing for a case can quickly pull up relevant case laws and precedents, saving hours of traditional legal research.

---

13. Multimodal Capabilities

You can enhance your research by uploading images or documents, allowing Perplexity to analyze them and provide relevant insights. This makes it a versatile tool for those working with multimedia content.

Example: If you’re analyzing a financial report or working with complex visual data, Perplexity can help break it down and offer explanations, giving you a deeper understanding.

---

14. Code Generation

For those in software development, Perplexity can help generate simple code snippets. You can ask it to create Python scripts, debug code, or assist with other programming tasks, making it a helpful tool for developers.

Example: Need help automating a task? You can ask Perplexity to generate a Python script, speeding up your workflow without needing to write the code from scratch.

Conclusion

Perplexity AI is much more than a simple search engine. From answering your questions to assisting with market research, SEO optimization, creative writing, and even programming, Perplexity’s versatility makes it a powerful tool across various use cases.

Valeriia Kuka

Valeriia Kuka, Head of Content at Learn Prompting, is passionate about making AI and ML accessible. Valeriia previously grew a 60K+ follower AI-focused social media account, earning reposts from Stanford NLP, Amazon Research, Hugging Face, and AI researchers. She has also worked with AI/ML newsletters and global communities with 100K+ members and authored clear and concise explainers and historical articles.