Perplexity has introduced “Computer,” a new service that lets users delegate tasks and watch them executed by a system that coordinates multiple agents using different models.
The company says Computer, currently available to Perplexity Max subscribers, is “a system that creates and executes entire workflows” and “capable of running for hours or even months.”
The user specifies a desired outcome—examples include “plan and execute a local digital marketing campaign for my restaurant” or “build me an Android app that helps me do a specific kind of research for my job.” Computer then decomposes the goal into subtasks, assigns them to multiple agents as necessary, and runs the models Perplexity judges best for each task.
The core reasoning engine runs Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6, while Gemini is used for deep research, Nano Banana handles image generation, Veo 3.1 covers video production, Grok takes on lightweight tasks where speed matters, and ChatGPT 5.2 is used for “long-context recall and wide search.”
That best-model-for-the-task strategy differs from some competing products like Claude Cowork, which rely solely on Anthropic’s models.
All of this runs in the cloud with prebuilt integrations. “Every task runs in an isolated compute environment with access to a real filesystem, a real browser, and real tool integrations,” Perplexity says.
The concept mirrors what some power users were already cobbling together and aims to make that approach accessible to people who don’t want to handle the setup themselves. Users had been combining multiple models and matching them to particular tasks based on perceived strengths, sometimes using MCP (Model Context Protocol) to grant those models access to data and applications on local machines. Perplexity Computer takes a different path but pursues the same objective: have AI agents using carefully chosen models to work with your own files, services, and applications.
There is also OpenClaw, which can be seen as an immediate predecessor to this idea.
The story so far
If you haven’t been following the OpenClaw craze, here’s a quick recap: originally named ClawdBot and later Moltbot, OpenClaw was an agentic AI tool that leveraged large language models to run autonomously in the background on your local machine, handling everything from sorting through your email history to building websites — essentially whatever you could imagine.
