Ai4 2025: Perplexity AI’s Tony Wu talks “How We Built AI That Thinks Like a Research Team"

In a solo presentation titled “From Search to Synthesis: How We Built AI That Thinks Like a Research Team,” Tony Wu, VP of Engineering at Perplexity AI, outlined how the company is redefining AI-powered search as a collaborative research experience.

Wu began by introducing Perplexity, a three-year-old San Francisco-based startup with a mission to “rewrite the fabric of the internet” and satisfy global curiosity. The company employs about 250 people worldwide and has built a suite of AI products designed to streamline information discovery and synthesis. Its core Ask product functions as an AI search engine, while Deep Research, launched earlier this year, autonomously explores multiple sources and compiles in-depth reports. Labs, released mid-year, enables users to create dashboards, spreadsheets, and web applications from concept to execution, and the company’s latest release, Comet, is the world’s first browser designed to act as a cognitive partner—helping users think, research, and complete tasks by maintaining context and automating processes.

Wu, a Stanford graduate and former engineer at Uber and OpenAI, leads Perplexity’s AI organisation, which focuses on post-training systems, inference, and machine learning techniques such as ranking and recommendations. Demonstrating the capabilities of Labs, he explained how the product condenses what might normally require 50 Google searches and dozens of hours into a streamlined 10-minute AI-assisted process, such as planning an international trip. With Comet, he said, the aim is to shift browsing from a purely navigational activity to an intelligence-amplifying experience. The browser can summarise articles, assist with tasks like emailing and scheduling, and retain memory across sessions, effectively simulating the workflow of a human research assistant.

Wu positioned these developments within Perplexity’s broader vision of an AI ecosystem that goes beyond answering questions to actively enabling deeper exploration and creativity. This approach reflects a larger shift in the technology landscape—from traditional search engines to intelligent agents capable of partnering with users in complex thinking tasks.

Perplexity’s Comet browser and AI research tools have attracted significant industry attention. Recent coverage includes The Verge’s feature, “Perplexity Just Launched an AI Web Browser,” Lifewire’s “This New AI Browser Could Finally Fix the Internet’s Biggest Headache,” and ITPro’s analysis, “A Threat to Google’s Dominance? The AI Browser Wars Have Begun.” These reports highlight how Perplexity is positioning itself as a serious contender in the emerging battle for the next generation of AI-enhanced search and browsing.

Robert Fletcher, CEO and Editor-in-Chief at CIJ EUROPE, is attending the event to cover the latest AI innovations, conduct interviews, and participate in panel discussions. His reports will appear in CIJ EUROPE’s August coverage and the Q3 issue of CIJ EUROPE magazine, bringing insights from Ai4 directly to the publication’s readership across the real estate and business sectors.