Perplexity AI kicked off its inaugural developer conference, Ask 2026, with a series of product launches aimed at expanding its AI platform beyond consumer search. Held Wednesday in San Francisco, the event highlighted Personal Computer, an always-on Mac mini-based agent that merges local apps with Perplexity’s cloud infrastructure for 24/7 task orchestration.
Perplexity AI has launched Personal Computer, an extension of its recently introduced Perplexity Computer. The service runs on a dedicated Mac mini that operates 24/7, connecting users’ local apps to Perplexity’s secure servers. It acts as a digital proxy, handling tasks continuously even when users are offline.
Personal Computer builds on Perplexity Computer, a general-purpose digital worker unveiled last month. That system unifies multiple frontier AI models to reason, delegate, search, code, and execute workflows across tools like browsers, filesystems, and APIs. Sub-agents manage subtasks asynchronously, with isolated compute environments for security.
The new Personal Computer merges local files with Perplexity Computer’s capabilities, enabling orchestration of tools, tasks, and files from any device. Sensitive actions require approval, and sessions include full audit trails plus a kill switch for user control. Perplexity is supporting an initial cohort, with a waitlist now open.
Perplexity Computer itself orchestrates models such as Opus 4.6 for reasoning, Gemini for research, and others for specialized tasks. It evolved from Perplexity’s AI-native browser and agent tools, emphasizing model-agnostic harnesses for versatile workflows. The company positions it as AI becoming “the computer,” handling complex work autonomously.
Availability is limited to Perplexity Max subscribers initially, with enterprise versions and APIs expanding access. Perplexity Computer saved internal teams significant labor in testing, performing extensive work in weeks.
