Perplexity Acquires Carbon for AI-Powered Work File Search

Perplexity's Acquisition of Carbon: Expanding AI Data Access

Perplexity has recently acquired Carbon, a Seattle-based startup focused on integrating AI systems with external data sources. The announcement was made on Wednesday by both companies.

According to CEO Aravind Srinivasan, this acquisition will enable Perplexity to search and utilize information from user files and communications within platforms like Notion, Google Docs, and Slack. This functionality is anticipated to be available in early 2025.

Understanding Carbon's Technology

Carbon’s core expertise lies in retrieval augmented generation (RAG). This technology empowers large language models to access and process information from external databases prior to formulating a response.

Integrating Carbon’s capabilities and team positions Perplexity to potentially introduce enterprise search solutions. These tools facilitate the connection of generative AI to company databases, streamlining the search process for employees navigating extensive unstructured data.

The Benefits of Enhanced Data Integration

Perplexity stated that Carbon will significantly improve its answer engine’s ability to draw upon a wider range of information sources. This includes internal databases, cloud storage solutions, and document repositories.

A Growing Market for Enterprise AI Search

The enterprise AI search sector is rapidly gaining prominence within the AI landscape. Recent reports indicate that OpenAI restricted investors from simultaneously investing in Glean, a leading enterprise search provider.

Glean’s success has reportedly spurred OpenAI, Google, and other major AI companies to develop their own enterprise search products. It is plausible that Perplexity has also been influenced by this trend.

Perplexity's Acquisition Strategy

This marks Perplexity’s second acquisition to date. Previously, in 2023, they acquired Spellwise, and the former CEO of Spellwise was subsequently appointed to lead the development of Perplexity’s mobile application.

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