The data: Use cases for Perplexity’s Comet AI browser and assistant mark how agentic AI’s influence is happening upstream, within cognitive tasks and away from the point of purchase.

Personal use makes up about 55% of total agentic queries within Comet, followed by professional (30%) and educational (16%), per a deep dive on the browser from Harvard Research and Perplexity.

• Top use case subcategories include summarizing and analyzing educational course materials, shopping, research, and document editing.
• Social media and account management also rank high as users deploy agents for social asset generation and oversight tasks like engaging with posts and analyzing social content.

Comet’s agentic AI users largely rely on the technology for productivity assistance rather than using it as a “digital concierge.”

• Cognitive tasks—including productivity and workflow support, learning, and research—account for over half (57%) of all agentic AI queries within Comet and Comet Assistant.
• Media and entertainment (16%) and shopping (10%) make up much smaller shares.

Users in marketing and sales have the highest agent usage ratio (AUR)—or the ratio between share of agentic AI users and share of agentic queries—and make up 7.2% of Comet agentic AI users.

Why it matters: Perplexity and AI in general are still only used by a fraction of the population—Comet is not yet 6 months old, and less than 40% of the US population uses genAI, per our data. Still, agentic AI still presents a powerful opportunity to access curious, high-intent consumers.

• Queries are often made when users already have intent to find new content or are actively open to new information, making agentic AI a discovery engine.
• Agentic AI is being baked into many platforms and browsers, marking an early opening for companies to focus on maximizing appearances in results.

The opportunity: AI firms are pushing into agentic shopping and product research tools, though real customer value still lies in everyday tasks, not just commerce.

The biggest entry for brands isn’t only being shoppable inside AI systems, but becoming embedded in users’ daily workflows. Brands that surface in productivity-driven queries could shape preferences and promote awareness before consumers enter a shopping mindset.

What brands should do: If agentic AI platforms are where AI users are planning, drafting, editing, studying, and organizing, brands need to think about:

• Utility over promotion. Offer structured web content, tools, and integrations that AI agents can pull into queries.
• Content’s AI readiness. Ensure product education and support content is optimized for agentic tasks and search queries.
• Brand touchpoints. Visibility comes from being a resource AI selects to help users learn and make decisions, not only when they shop.

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