AI-powered search engine Perplexity launches into e-commerce. On Monday, the company launched a new shopping feature for its paying customers in the United States, which offers shopping recommendations in Perplexity’s search results as well as the ability to place an order without going to Perplexity’s website. a retailer.

With this move, Perplexity takes on Google and Amazon, intending to capture a portion of shopping search results.

For shopping-related search queries, the tool presents users with visual cards containing product details, price and seller information, a brief description, and the pros and cons of the item in question . Users can click or tap the map to read more information, including reviews and detailed key features.

Consumers can also store their address and credit card details in Perplexity for easy payment. The company claims to calculate taxes for your address so you can purchase an item with just one click. The company said Pro subscribers will receive free shipping on items purchased through its one-click checkout system. For now, the search engine’s recommendations are “unbiased” because there are no sponsored slots, notes Perplexity.

The new search experience is powered by integrations with seller sites, including Shopify. The latter unlocks information about all sellers using Shopify who ship items to the United States.

The feature also allows users to search by adding a photo of an item they want with their query. This is similar to Google which also offered miscellaneous iterations of a product that allows you to combine images and text in a search field.

Alongside the launch of its purchasing tools, Perplexity is introducing a merchant program.

If merchants sign up for this program, they will have a better chance of being a recommended product because the company will have more complete information in its index. People can also use one-click checkout to purchase items from the company’s merchant partners, the company said.

Merchants will also have free access to the API to optimize search on their own websites, which could help Perplexity gain market share in this space. The company said it is not taking an affiliate cut from user purchases at this time. In addition, he clarified that the purchasing function is distinct from its advertising productwhich was presented last week.

Apart from Big Tech, startups like Daydream, Deft and Remark have also raised millions of dollars from venture capitalists to create AI-powered shopping searches.

Amazon launched the AI-powered Rufus assistant earlier this year in the United States And extended to other countries at the end of last month. After its Prime Day sales event in July, the company noted that Rufus had helped “millions” of customers find the right items. Google too optimized its Shopping tab with AI in October for better search results.

With the emergence of large language models, companies working in the e-commerce sector have realized that it is possible to suggest better options, since these models can analyze user queries and match catalog items to the help of organized and unorganized data.

The promise of this new wave of search is that e-commerce search has been bad for years, but now you can write long sentences to describe an item you need, and AI will do the work for you.

These companies are also betting that AI will help you find an item quickly and you won’t need to spend a lot of time searching for something. But that premise comes with an implicit caveat: You have to rely on the limited search results that AI tools give you. To build trust, companies providing these tools will need to ensure they eliminate implicit bias and preferential treatment before regulators intervene.