Perplexity to Add Agentic Shopping to Its Search Engine

Perplexity’s new partnership with the United States government and the artificial intelligence startup’s free agentic shopping product for U.S. users were announced Wednesday (Nov. 19).

The new shopping experience will be rolled out to U.S. users next week, Perplexity Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko told CNBC in a report posted Wednesday.

In this experience, users will do their own research, because most people want to do that, and then the “agentic part is the seamless purchase right from the answer,” Shevelenko said.

Over time, this experience will enable users to buy items from 5,000 merchants through Perplexity’s search engine, according to the report.

It was also announced Wednesday that the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has formed what it calls a first-of-its-kind agreement with Perplexity.

The new “OneGov” agreement is designed to provide federal agencies with “secure, enterprise-grade” AI research and drafting capabilities at deeply discounted pricing, according to a Wednesday news release.

The agreement lets agencies access Perplexity Enterprise Pro for Government for 25 cents per agency over an 18-month term, the GSA said in a news release.

“Access to cutting-edge AI models is essential for integrating AI into federal government operations and modernizing inefficient processes, aligning with the White House’s AI Action Plan,” said Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum.

This partnership supports the White House’s AI Action Plan, the release adds, aimed at making sure federal workers can tap into AI to modernize operations, improve decision-making and present taxpayers with better results.

“Accurate AI serves America. We’re proud to support President Trump’s AI Action Plan by giving federal employees cited, verifiable answers across every major AI model, arming public servants to make highly informed decisions that serve the American people,” said Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and CEO of Perplexity.

The OneGov strategy, the release said, aims at working directly with original equipment manufacturers and technology companies to lower costs and support transparent pricing, streamlined acquisition and cybersecurity.

With this partnership, Perplexity becomes the latest in a series of AI companies offering discounts to government agencies.

Google announced in August it would provide a complete AI platform to federal agencies and employees for 47 cents in the first year. The “Gemini for Government” plan includes enterprise search, image and video generation, and NotebookLM, Google’s AI-powered note-taking and research assistant.

Weeks later, Elon Musk’s xAI announced that federal agencies could begin accessing its Grok artificial intelligence models for 42 cents per agency for 18 months, through March 2027.

In other news from the intersection of government and AI, recent Senate legislation calls for major companies and federal agencies to report artificial intelligence-related layoffs, hires, job displacements, retraining and other job impacts to the Department of Labor (DOL).

“Artificial intelligence is already replacing American workers, and experts project AI could drive unemployment up to 10-20% in the next five years,” Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican and one of the sponsors of the bill, said in a news release.

“The American people need to have an accurate understanding of how AI is affecting our workforce, so we can ensure that AI works for the people, not the other way around.”

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