Perplexity has acquired Carbon, a small Seattle-based startup that specializes in connecting AI systems to external data sources, the companies announced Wednesday. CEO Aravind Srinivasan said Perplexity will be able to search files and work messages in Notion, Google Docs, Slack and other enterprise applications in early 2025.
Carbon specializes in search extension generation (RAG). RAGs allow large language models to access information from external databases before generating answers. By bringing Carbon's technology and staff on board, Perplexity could open the door to launching an enterprise search product. These tools connect generative AI to corporate databases, allowing employees to quickly search through the large amounts of unstructured data that the company has acquired over the years.
“Carbon makes it easy for Perplexity's answer engine to pull information from a variety of sources, whether the data resides in internal databases, cloud storage, or document repositories,” Perplexity said in a statement. Masu.
Enterprise AI search is quickly becoming a competitive arena in the AI world. OpenAI reportedly told investors in its latest $6.6 billion round that it would not be able to invest in Glean, the current front-runner in enterprise search, either. Glean has reportedly inspired OpenAI, Google, and several other AI giants to develop their own enterprise search products, and they're likely influencing Perplexity as well.
This is Perplexity's second acquisition following its acquisition of Spellwise in 2023, and the CEO was brought on to develop Perplexity's mobile app.