Perplexity CEO says his AI browser Comet is coming for these two office jobs, cut the doomscrolling now
Srinivas didn't mince words about which jobs he believes are at risk. Executive assistants and recruiters, he said, are the two roles Comet is designed to make redundant. Still in its invite-only phase, Comet is pitched as a tool capable of replacing the core daily functions of these positions.For executive assistants, Comet can manage calendars, prepare meeting materials, triage emails, and resolve scheduling conflicts, all through natural language prompts. 'A recruiter's work worth one week is just one prompt: sourcing and reach outs,' Srinivas explained.He went on to outline how the AI browser can track candidate replies, update progress in Google Sheets, handle follow-ups, and even provide a pre-meeting briefing, effectively covering the full recruitment lifecycle.Srinivas envisions Comet becoming an AI 'operating system' for office work, capable of executing commands from prompts and running automated tasks behind the scenes. While it remains accessible only to premium users for now, the company is betting that users will happily pay for a browser that gets actual work done rather than simply offering information.AI taking over roles at work: True or falseSrinivas' comments add fuel to an ongoing debate in the tech industry: Will AI replace or simply reshape the workforce?Dario Amodei, CEO of AI firm Anthropic, has publicly predicted that up to 50 per cent of entry-level office jobs could vanish within five years. Echoing that sentiment, Ford's CEO Jim Farley suggested at the Aspen Ideas Festival that half of all white-collar jobs in the US are under threat from artificial intelligence.Not everyone shares that bleak outlook. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said AI has transformed his own job but framed it as evolution, not extinction. Salesforce boss Marc Benioff has also stressed that AI is a tool for augmentation, not elimination.advertisementEven so, there's a consensus that AI is changing the workplace at breakneck speed. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently urged his staff to learn, experiment with, and adopt AI tools, warning that failure to adapt could lead to redundancy as automation takes hold.As AI tools like Comet continue to evolve, the lines between human and machine labour in office settings are growing increasingly blurred. Whether Comet becomes a digital co-worker or a job replacement engine, one thing is certain that the white-collar world is on the cusp of dramatic change.- Ends
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'They probably don't have similar guardrails like we have on the models themselves and so they're possibly going to be able to get more powerful insights, faster,' he says. On July 23rd, the Trump administration ordered the Pentagon and intelligence agencies to regularly assess how quickly America's national-security agencies are adopting AI relative to competitors such as China, and to 'establish an approach for continuous adaptation'. Almost everyone agrees on this. Senator Warner argues that American spooks have been doing a 'crappy job' tracking China's progress. 'The acquisition of technology [and] penetration of Chinese tech companies is still quite low.' The biggest risk, says Ms Mulligan, is not that America rushes into the technology before understanding the risks. 'It's that DoD and the IC keep doing things the way they've always done them. What keeps me up at night is the real possibility that we could win the race to AGI [artificial general intelligence]...and lose the race on adoption.'
