I gave Perplexity's agentic AI 5 complex tasks to run on my Mac - and I'll do it again
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Agentic AI promises to automatically handle tasks that would otherwise require significant time and effort on your part. And by interacting directly with your computer, the AI can work with your files, apps, settings, and services. One particular agentic AI that's getting a lot of buzz is Perplexity, thanks to the Personal Computer feature built into the Mac app.
Initially available only for Perplexity Max subscribers, the Personal Computer skill recently expanded to Enterprise and Pro users. If you subscribe to any of those plans, all you need to do is download the Perplexity Mac app to try out the feature. You can then connect Perplexity to your own files, apps, and services and give it a range of assignments to tackle on its own.
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Personal Computer takes advantage of three types of access.
Perplexity's Personal Computer can use Safari or another web browser to browse the web normally. But if you want the AI to log in to websites, fill in forms, click buttons, and interact with various pages and content, you'll need to install Perplexity's Comet browser.
To start a session, you can simply click the Perplexity icon on the Dock. But pressing the two Command keys at the same time also launches a small session window where you can type or speak your request. Plus, you're able to kick off a voice conversation with the AI in which you can discuss the task you'd like it to complete.
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I recently took Perplexity's Personal Computer skill for a test drive to see how it handled a range of tasks. I started with a couple of relatively simple ones and ramped up the difficulty level to see how it would react. To cut to the chase, I was quite impressed with Personal Computer. Frankly, I gave it some tasks that I didn't think it could handle, and it completed them as I requested.
Head to the Perplexity Personal Computer page on your Mac and click the Download for Mac button to download and install the app. After signing in, you're prompted to grant Perplexity access to keyboard shortcuts, screen recording, and your hard drive so that it can work across your Mac. Follow the screens to set up the necessary permissions.
You may next want to add the connectors for third-party services if you want the AI to access them. You're able to connect such services as Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, SharePoint, Outlook, Slack, GitHub, Shopify, and many more. To do this, select the Customize option in the left pane. On the screen of connectors, click the name of a service you wish to add. On the next screen, click the Add connector button, then sign in to the service to connect it.
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If you plan to use Perplexity to interact with web pages, you'll need to install the Comet browser . For this, browse to the Comet web site and click the button to download Comet.
OK, with everything set up, here are the missions I gave it, and how Perplexity's Personal Computer fared.
Return to the Perplexity app and click the New Task option on the left. You're placed at the Personal Computer screen where you're able to kick off a task by submitting your request at the prompt. If you're not sure how to get started, select a category below the prompt and choose a suggested task. I selected the task of building an Italian practice tool focused on everyday phrases.
The process took around 15 minutes to complete. When done, Perplexity created an interactive language-learning tool that let me see and hear different Italian phrases across multiple categories. I could also take a quiz to see what I had learned. I appreciated this one, as my wife and I are planning a trip to Italy next year, so I need to bone up on my Italian.
Next, I tried one of my own tasks. Here, I asked Perplexity to scan a Word document that I use as a handout for an eBay class that I teach and turn it into a PowerPoint presentation. In response, the AI created an organized and comprehensive presentation based on the document. But it looked bland, so I asked it to add some color and images, which it did, making it more visually appealing.
For this one, I attached an article of mine written in English and asked Perplexity to translate it into Italian. But there's more. I grabbed the article from Microsoft OneDrive. I also told Perplexity to create a side-by-side bilingual study document highlighting idioms and tricky grammar and a text-to-speech audio file of the Italian version that I can listen to any time.
Further, I told it to store the resulting files in the Documents folder on the Mac. And I submitted my request through the AI's conversational Voice Mode rather than typing it. The advantage is that Perplexity repeated the steps of my request to confirm them and told me when the task was completed.
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One glitch to start. The AI informed me that it couldn't "see" the document I had already attached at the prompt, so I had to upload it again. From there, though, the process went smoothly. Toward the end, I had to grant Perplexity permission to access my Documents folder. But the necessary files were placed in the correct folder and also attached to the conversation, so I could access them both ways.
Next, I gave Perplexity a task that required it to create a file from existing data and to work with two third-party file services. Here, I told it to scan my Invoices folder on Google Drive for the My Invoices document. I then directed it to extract client names and dollar amounts from each page, add them to an Excel spreadsheet, and include a total row at the bottom. Finally, I asked it to copy the spreadsheet to my Business folder on Box.
Since I had already connected Google Drive and Box to Perplexity, I didn't need to sign into either account. But because this task required the web browser to interact with these services, the AI used Comet instead of Safari. Perplexity completed this one without a hitch, creating and copying the spreadsheet to Box and displaying it in the conversation as well.
For this next trick, I told Perplexity to scan a folder in Outlook for emails that discussed a specific topic. I then asked it for a summary of those emails, as well as a review against the websites mentioned in them to check for inaccuracies or contradictions. Further, I asked it to save the summary as a Word document in a OneDrive folder.
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This one took more than 30 minutes to complete and required 86 separate steps. It got the gist of my request but dropped the ball with one item. For some reason, it couldn't find the folder I specified in Outlook and instead searched all folders for the specified topic. But it still found the emails I wanted and provided a clear and well-researched summary document stored in OneDrive and displayed in the conversation.
Overall, I was impressed with Perplexity's Personal Computer skill. I threw some difficult tasks at it. And except for a couple of hiccups along the way, the AI delivered exactly what I requested. The next time I need to take care of a complex task on my Mac, I'll be sure to hand the assignment to Perplexity.
