Building An AI Ecosystem With Dmitry Shevelenko From Perplexity

In this episode of FYI, ARK’s Brett Winton and Charlie Roberts speak with Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity, about the company’s evolving role in the future of the agentic internet. They discuss how Perplexity is carving out its place in the AI ecosystem—not as just a wrapper, but as a full-stack answer engine built for research, action, and trust. Dmitry outlines how Perplexity balances product excellence, model orchestration, and subscription alignment to serve both consumers and enterprises. He also highlights the team’s bold vision for Comet, their AI-native web browser, and how it fits into a future shaped by AI agents and voice interfaces.

Key Points From This Episode:

• 00:00:00 How Perplexity positions itself within the AI assistant landscape—and what makes it stand out to ARK.
• 00:02:37 Why the analyst team prefers Perplexity for researching earnings calls, transcripts, and filings.
• 00:03:58 Dmitry explains why only a few agentic AI systems may dominate—and why productization still matters.
• 00:06:10 The team discusses Perplexity's potential for rapid user growth and why context portability may remain limited.
• 00:07:51 How the agentic internet could reshape browsing—and why half of current screen time may be up for automation.
• 00:09:33 A breakdown of Perplexity’s monetization strategy, centered on consumer and enterprise subscriptions.
• 00:12:28 Why the company avoids ad-based business models in favor of long-term trust alignment with users.
• 00:13:17 Introducing Pro Perks: how Perplexity returns affiliate value to users instead of monetizing with ads.
• 00:14:28 The vision of a future where your personal agent negotiates on your behalf with merchants' AI agents.
• 00:15:43 Why link-based performance advertising is vulnerable in an agentic world—and which ad models might persist.
• 00:18:10 Charles on building trust and resisting “sycophantic” behavior in AI agents.
• 00:19:47 Perplexity’s view that the same AI assistant can serve both personal and professional needs.
• 00:22:12 How Comet, the new Perplexity browser, lets agents perform real-world actions—like buying books and managing LinkedIn.
• 00:26:00 The team explores how reduced friction leads to increased curiosity and new behaviors online.
• 00:28:15 Brett asks how browser context, data, and distribution contribute to Perplexity’s strategy and the Chrome bid.
• 00:30:08 How voice interfaces may disrupt browsing—and how Perplexity is preparing for that shift.
• 00:32:18 Why big companies struggle with probabilistic AI outputs—and how that limits speaker adoption.
• 00:34:06 On mobile, Perplexity aims for deeper OS integration beyond just launching a mobile browser.
• 00:35:18 When asked about BCI, Charles emphasizes staying agile over trying to predict distant tech horizons.
• 00:37:04 Why Perplexity focuses on augmenting human curiosity—rather than chasing AGI or superintelligence.
• 00:38:15 Perplexity’s role in debugging and breaking through AI tool limitations—rather than generating code.
• 00:40:01 Charles responds to “just a wrapper” critiques, explaining Perplexity’s orchestration layer and search infra.
• 00:43:13 Execution velocity as a cultural differentiator—and why adaptability is key to Perplexity’s growth.