Perplexity CEO predicts AI browser will shake up white-collar work
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES — Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas believes artificial intelligence is about to automate two core office jobs: recruiters and administrative assistants.
Speaking on The Verge’s “Decoder” podcast, Srinivas described how the company’s new AI-native browser, Comet, is designed to be more than just a browsing tool.
“A recruiter’s work worth one week is just one prompt: sourcing and reach outs,” Srinivas said, highlighting how Comet’s AI agent can log in to platforms like Gmail, LinkedIn, and Google Calendar to source candidates, pull contact data, and send personalized email campaigns, duties typically assigned to recruiting coordinators.
Comet also has features meant for executive assistants. According to Srinivas, the browser’s AI can triage emails, coordinate calendars, handle follow-ups, and even push out briefing notes for meetings.
“You want it to keep following up, keep a track of their responses. If some people respond, go and update the Google Sheets, mark the status as responded or in progress, and follow up with those candidates, sync with my Google Calendar, and then resolve conflicts and schedule a chat, and then push me a brief ahead of the meeting,” he said.
The changing landscape of office work
Srinivas envisions Comet growing into “an AI operating system for white-collar workers,” one that runs in the background, autonomously executing tasks from natural language instructions.
While Comet remains invite-only and premium for now, Srinivas is confident companies will pay when the value is clear: “At scale, if it helps you to make a few million bucks, does it not make sense to spend $2,000 for that prompt? It does, right?”
He emphasized that those quickest to master AI will fare best in the evolving job market. “People who are at the frontier of using AI are going to be way more employable than people who are not,” Srinivas warned.
Industry leaders divided on impact
Perplexity’s prediction echoes warnings from other tech executives. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, has said AI could wipe out 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, especially in fields like finance and law. Ford’s CEO Jim Farley suggested “AI is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US.”
Yet, not all leaders agree on the replacement narrative. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang argue that AI will augment, not obliterate, office work.
Even among optimists, there’s consensus that rapid change requires workers to adapt or risk being left behind. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy previously urged staff to proactively learn AI tools, stating that generative AI would reduce the company’s white-collar workforce.
