With the Comet AI browser now available to everyone, the promises of the next revolution have been floating around. However, the company’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, warns about the changes this browser could bring to the table of hiring managers. Srinivas says that this browser is more than just a search tool – it is designed to automate complex research and analysis tasks to such an extent that it could change corporate hiring habits!
Srinivas views the Comet as a revolutionary productivity tool that challenges the need to simply hire new resources to an organisation. In a statement to CNBC, the founder and CEO suggested that businesses may soon opt for the AI assistant over new human recruitment.
“Instead of hiring one more person on your team, you could just use Comet to supplement all the work that you’re doing,” Srinivas said in a CNBC interview.
Comet gets off to a good start
Comet was launched in July and was previously limited to a waitlist and Perplexity Max subscribers. Being a Large Language Model (LLM)-based browser equipped with an in-built AI agent, Perplexity says that Comet is capable of autonomously browsing the web, gathering information, and performing in-depth research to assist users. Its capabilities include generating summaries of articles and YouTube videos, describing images, and providing AI-generated overviews of all open tabs in the browser.
Srinivas said the browser is a ‘true personal assistant,’ predicting that the increase in productivity brought by Comet could be worth an estimated $10,000 per year for a single user. He expanded on the macro-economic impact, saying that a mere 20 per cent gain in the global “human digital knowledge work,” which contributes about $25 trillion to the GDP, could result in a $5 trillion increase in global GDP growth.
Did Srinivas fan the evergreen ‘AI-job’ debate?
The CEO’s remarks land amidst a heated industry debate about AI’s impact on human labour. While some leaders, like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, have warned of massive job displacement, Srinivas and others, including Bill Gates, believe AI will ultimately create new opportunities by accelerating efficiency.
Srinivas stressed that the technology is focused on delivering genuine value beyond simple conversation. “It’s not just about answering questions from a sycophant chatbot that tells you good stuff you want to hear. It’s about delivering value and you being able to delegate tasks,” he said.
While the Comet browser is now available free for both Windows and Mac users, Perplexity reserves advanced features for its Max subscribers. Max subscribers get the Email Assistant (which drafts tone-matched replies) and a new “background assistant” that performs system tasks.
