Updated
Updated · ZDNet · Jul 22
ZDNET Tests Perplexity Mac AI on 5 Tasks, Finds It Handles 86-Step Workflows
Updated
Updated · ZDNet · Jul 22

ZDNET Tests Perplexity Mac AI on 5 Tasks, Finds It Handles 86-Step Workflows

1 articles · Updated · ZDNet · Jul 22

Summary

  • Five Mac tasks ranging from document conversion to email analysis left ZDNET largely impressed with Perplexity’s Personal Computer, which completed most assignments with only minor errors.
  • The feature works by combining local file access, native app control and connectors to services such as OneDrive, Google Drive and Box; website logins and form-filling require Perplexity’s Comet browser.
  • In the tests, Perplexity built an Italian practice tool in about 15 minutes, turned a Word handout into a PowerPoint, and created bilingual study files plus Italian audio after one re-upload and a folder-permission prompt.
  • It also pulled invoice data from Google Drive into an Excel sheet copied to Box without issue, while an Outlook review took more than 30 minutes and 86 steps but searched all folders instead of the specified one.
  • Personal Computer, once limited to Max subscribers and now available to Enterprise and Pro users, is positioned as a Mac-based agentic AI that can automate multi-app workflows across local and cloud files.

Insights

Can we trust AI assistants that promise automation but still misread files and get lost in our folders?
If AI can perform complex digital jobs, what is the new role for human knowledge workers?
As AI agents gain full access to our computers, is a catastrophic security breach now simply inevitable?