October 2, 2025

Get ready for a new wave in search engines! Aravind Srinivas, CEO of AI startup Perplexity, shakes up the search world with his exciting vision. In a chat with ET’s Samidha Sharma, Srinivas said the old way of searching the web—just clicking links—is old news. "Traditional web indexes were designed for users clicking through links, but new indexes have to let AI systems ingest real-time, grounded information and produce accurate answers," he explained. What’s the big deal about indexes? Imagine a giant library catalog that holds trillions of web pages, images, and links ready to be retrieved instantly. That’s an index for you! Srinivas said making these indexes is even trickier than building huge AI language models because, “You can only do it by building, getting data, and iterating.” It’s not just cost—it takes huge time and expertise. His secret weapon? A strong, solid browsing system that many AI companies don’t have. "It is the one thing Google truly has that most model companies do not. Building an index and a robust browsing stack is a long, iterative grind," he shared. Perplexity plans to launch its own smart index by the end of this year, aiming to be as good as Bing or maybe even better! While Google still rules with nearly 90% of global search share, AI challengers like Perplexity and ChatGPT are making waves. Srinivas is also passionate about Indian tech power, saying he wants to inspire more founders to build global giants, not just manage them. Perplexity will even open APIs so others can create AI agents using their index and browsing tools. So, will Perplexity topple the king of search? The battle for the future of how we find information is just heating up. Srinivas’s vision promises a smarter, faster, and AI-powered way to explore the internet. Grab your popcorn, because this tech drama is going to be spicy!

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Tags: Perplexity ai, Aravind srinivas, Search engines, Ai indexing, Google, Ai technology,