AI company Perplexity revealed on Wednesday that it is partnering with Paypal to let users make purchases directly in chat. Users in the United States would soon be able to use Perplexity to buy products, book tickets, and more, all while being able to make payments using Paypal or Venmo. PayPal will handle processing, shipping, tracking, and invoicing. Purchases will be completed with one click, with the help of the payment company’s passkey checkout.
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“Perplexity wants to be wherever users are asking questions and making decisions,” said Ryan Foutty, Perplexity’s vice president of business. “Our vision for assistive AI is that everything just gets better and easier for people — wherever they are and however they prefer to make decisions.”
In 2024, Perplexity added a shopping feature for paid U.S. users, and integrated with sellers using services like Shopify. With the latest development, however, this feature can be used in chat, something rival AI companies like OpenAI are yet to roll out, though OpenAI did mention plans to integrate Shopify with ChatGPT earlier.
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Meanwhile, PayPal introduced a developer toolkit designed to embed its payment capabilities into AI-powered shopping experiences. “The next generation of commerce is happening on the agentic side. People are starting to research and shop online through agents,” Paypal’s Chief Technology Officer Srini Venkatesan said, referring to AI-driven systems that can complete tasks without human intervention. “Agentic commerce is not only the searching but making it all the way to the purchase — paying for it and then buying it from that merchant. So that’s what PayPal has been leading, and we’ve been trying to get the agentic commerce piece right.”
Venkatesan also added that PayPal’s edge in this space comes from its ability to securely verify both buyers and sellers. PayPal authenticates users through their wallet and automatically fills in billing and shipping information, aiming to reduce friction.