Thanks for another great post, Paola & Karen! 🤗 You’re definitely onto something, especially with ChatGPT and Perplexity rolling out shopping features. I also really appreciate the ethics commentary for each tool.
This is a fascinating topic. A few points I thought would be interesting to discuss,
1. You’ve probably seen Google’s recent push to innovate new products and explore what the future of search and AI-driven interfaces looks like. It’ll be interesting to watch how this trend unfolds over the next year or two.
2. On the economic side, I think we’ll see consolidation among AI players. Startups like Perplexity or OpenAI may be well funded, but they are lost making, unlike Google or Meta are players with sustainable revenue streams. Think of it as another “railroad war”—definitely a drama worth following.
I did a follow-up research after I wrote a similar piece last year. I looked for evidence that companies like OpenAI or Perplexity have already crossed the finish line...
But the numbers tell a different story. They’ll probably need tens of millions more users before they really get there. Though I haven't checked the latest data ... :D
Absolutely! Google has been investing heavily in this area. They're running what I think is supposed to be one of the biggest (if not the biggest) A/B tests because they're trying to keep up with the AI-driven interfaces.
That's such an interesting perspective, and I can see that happening. I'm not sure if it might happen soon, though. There's still a big culture supporting unicorn companies that continue to not make any profits (or sustainable revenue) but get so much funding based on their value prop. So it might depend on whether that would wind down, which might depend on the economy and how bullish people would be when giving out money to these companies.
I'm sure they've increased their users since your last piece, but I doubt it would be what would be needed. Maybe OpenAI, because of the enterprise users. But as much as I love Perplexity (it's my fave!) I can't seem them leaving that niche
But I'm definitely up to get some popcorn for that railroad war drama :P
Thanks for another great post, Paola & Karen! 🤗 You’re definitely onto something, especially with ChatGPT and Perplexity rolling out shopping features. I also really appreciate the ethics commentary for each tool.
Would you be open to adding this article to the Substack AI Tools Directory? 🤗
Absolutely! Thanks so much for such a great opportunity!
Thanks, Paula, for writing this!
This is a fascinating topic. A few points I thought would be interesting to discuss,
1. You’ve probably seen Google’s recent push to innovate new products and explore what the future of search and AI-driven interfaces looks like. It’ll be interesting to watch how this trend unfolds over the next year or two.
2. On the economic side, I think we’ll see consolidation among AI players. Startups like Perplexity or OpenAI may be well funded, but they are lost making, unlike Google or Meta are players with sustainable revenue streams. Think of it as another “railroad war”—definitely a drama worth following.
I did a follow-up research after I wrote a similar piece last year. I looked for evidence that companies like OpenAI or Perplexity have already crossed the finish line...
But the numbers tell a different story. They’ll probably need tens of millions more users before they really get there. Though I haven't checked the latest data ... :D
Thanks Jing!
Absolutely! Google has been investing heavily in this area. They're running what I think is supposed to be one of the biggest (if not the biggest) A/B tests because they're trying to keep up with the AI-driven interfaces.
That's such an interesting perspective, and I can see that happening. I'm not sure if it might happen soon, though. There's still a big culture supporting unicorn companies that continue to not make any profits (or sustainable revenue) but get so much funding based on their value prop. So it might depend on whether that would wind down, which might depend on the economy and how bullish people would be when giving out money to these companies.
I'm sure they've increased their users since your last piece, but I doubt it would be what would be needed. Maybe OpenAI, because of the enterprise users. But as much as I love Perplexity (it's my fave!) I can't seem them leaving that niche
But I'm definitely up to get some popcorn for that railroad war drama :P