When it comes to Perplexity’s ad business, the platform is at a crossroads

“He was the only one who had a clue [about Perplexity’s ad vision], and it wasn’t much,” said an ad exec, who recounted their impression of Patel on condition of anonymity. “Given my perceptions of him and the interactions I and our team have tried to have with him on behalf of multiple clients in the last 90 days. Not impressive.”

Perplexity’s head of communication, Jesse Dwyer, confirmed to Digiday that Patel is no longer with the company. Patel did not respond to Digiday’s request for comment.

It’s a sharp turn from the optimism that surrounded Perplexity just a year ago. Back then, the company began testing ad placements in its conversational AI search experience, generating buzz among marketers eager for a post-Google alternative. But that early excitement has since cooled. The tests didn’t evolve into anything meaningful — and now neither has the strategy. 

“We have not heard anything from Perplexity and we don’t have any insider info.,” said a media buyer at an independent ad agency, who exchanged anonymity for candor on the topic. “The general info I’ve gotten from our team here is that they don’t call on us often.” In other words, contact had been minimal.

To be fair, Perplexity’s positioning is still a work in progress. Unlike traditional search ads built around performance and conversions, the company has pitched its early ad product as a brand-building opportunity aimed at a tech-forward, early adopter audience. Not to mention, it launched a browser over the summer, and is rumored to be an acquisition target for Apple. It’s the sort of uncertainty that makes marketers wary.

“We tried to work with him [Patel] on behalf of three different clients, almost four months ago and never got a meeting with him,” said one exec.

“I spoke to Taz about a number of our global clients who want to do smart, data-driven creative partnerships,” added another exec. “But then he left and there was no handover. So now I’m trying to reengage with someone else in the business.”

Holding companies haven’t fared much better. Two execs from major holding groups told Digiday they’ve struggled to get time with anyone on Perplexity’s ad team.

But the silence isn’t new. 

As early as six months into its ad push, marketers were already expressing doubts. Despite early fanfare, Perplexity hadn’t opened up much beyond a small group of launch advertisers. The window never really widened. And now, the strategy seems to have gone just as quiet.

“I don’t know what he [Taz Patel] was doing, because he hadn’t replied to our team either,” said the ad exec. “I mean, to be honest, they just might be ghosting the whole industry right now because they have no clue. And culturally, again, they’re obviously a product and company, not a sales and marketing company, and so they’re still figuring it out with a lot of other massive competitors around them, and a lot of money poured in that they’re not putting to a lot of good use in terms of building out a second revenue stream right now.”

Responding specifically about Perplexity’s ambitions, Dwyer, told Digiday the team has been clear that it would experiment with a small group of advertisers slowly over the coming years to identify new ways of marketing in the AI age where users have much more control and much higher expectations. He did not name specific brands that were on board.

“Nothing has changed in our plans or operations, and our experiments are continuing as planned. Less than 0.5% of the advertisers who’ve directly asked to advertise on our platform have been allowed and that is in accordance with this vision that we’ve always been unwaveringly clear on,” Dwyer said.

Running an AI company is one thing. Running an ad-funded one is another. Perplexity isn’t the first to struggle with that tension — and it won’t be the last. But with $400 million in fresh capital secured over the past few months, according to reports from The Information and Bloomberg, the clock is ticking. Advertising may not be the core business, but at some point, even AI companies like Perplexity have to find a path to profitability. 

“I think what they clearly don’t have is a monetization strategy, and they probably don’t have anyone in place that has ‘been there, done that’, in terms of launching an ad platform with a big tech company,” said a media buyer at a digital agency, who agreed to speak to Digiday anonymously in exchange for candor. “Maybe, that’s part of the problem — that people they have are not from that legacy media background.”

However, speaking about the company’s revenue, Dwyer noted that advertising currently makes up less than 0.01% of Perplexity’s nine-figure revenues. “For a company that’s younger than my 3-year-old toddler, I think we’re doing just fine,” Dwyer said.

The disconnect may help explain why holdco agency partners like UM have been doing most of the heavy lifting, pitching advertisers on Perplexity’s potential while the platform itself remains largely hands-off. 

“On the Perplexity side, I am basically driving a test on the enterprise side, testing their tool internally,” said an ad agency exec, who spoke to Digiday on condition of anonymity. “I’m also talking to them about doing branded integrations for some of our clients.”

That means approaching Perplexity from all angles: figuring out workflow, operational needs, and perhaps most crucially, why advertisers should care in the first place.

So far, that answer remains elusive. The ad formats aren’t appealing and neither is the platform’s reach. At the Bloomberg Tech Summit in June, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas announced that the platform had 22 million active users, and had processed 780 million search queries in May — figures he believed were a key milestone for the app.

If you have any insights to share about Perplexity, or any other platform, or if you’re a current or former employee of any of the platforms, contact Krystal Scanlon securely using a non-work device on Signal: @krystalscanlon.27, email: krystal@digiday.com or via LinkedIn.