Post by Perplexity

We published new research with Harvard on the shift from chat interfaces to autonomous agents like Computer. Over three months, workers finished tasks in 87% less time and at 94% less cost using Computer instead of Search alone, with higher satisfaction. Blog: https://lnkd.in/eVBMBUCM To compare the two products fairly, we built 10,000 matched pairs where the same user asked near-identical queries to both Search and Computer, and Computer ran at least one execution tool. We then priced human time using BLS wages. Search is cheap to start but costly per step, since you run each one. Computer costs more to set up, but the agent runs the steps. The longer the task, the more that setup pays off, which is why people hand it the long, multi-step work they skip in Search. Adoption grew fast. Cumulative Computer queries reached 84x their first-week level by the end of the study. Most of them are knowledge work, led by research and analysis (25.8%) and document and asset creation (18.6%), concentrated in software, finance, and marketing. Per session, Computer runs about 26 minutes of machine work to Search's 33 seconds. It also reaches past the browser more often, using an external connector in 7.9% of sessions versus 1.8% for Search. Computer queries were nearly 3x as likely as Search queries to require expertise across three or more fields, like law, finance, or biology, in a single request. 23% involved work that never showed up in the same users' Search history. More autonomy tracked with higher quality, not lower. Dissatisfaction with Computer ran 1.3% versus 2.9% for Search. Read the full paper: https://lnkd.in/ez6MjVHV