Aravind Srinivasan, an Indian-origin AI researcher and entrepreneur, is the CEO and co-founder of Perplexity AI—an emerging rival to ChatGPT, Grok, and Google Gemini. Backed by global investors and recently partnered with Airtel in India, Srinivasan’s journey from Chennai to Silicon Valley marks a bold challenge to big tech dominance in the generative AI space.
A Rising Challenger in AI Search
Indian‑origin technologist Aravind Srinivasan serves as the co‑founder and CEO of Perplexity AI, a generative AI company pioneering conversational, citation‑based search responses. At just 31, Srinivasan has propelled Perplexity into the leadership ranks of the AI space, positioning the firm as a viable alternative to ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
From Chennai to Silicon Valley
Born in Chennai in 1994 and inspired by his mother to attend IIT Madras, Srinivasan earned B.Tech and M.Tech degrees in electrical engineering before earning a PhD in computer science at UC Berkeley. During his academic journey, he interned at leading institutions including OpenAI, DeepMind, and Google Brain.
Building Perplexity AI
Srinivasan co‑founded Perplexity AI in mid‑2022 with fellow AI researchers. The company has developed a next‑generation conversational engine that blends real‑time internet search with generative AI to provide accurate, sourced answers—eschewing hallucinations commonly associated with chatbots. Backed by investors including Jeff Bezos, Nat Friedman, Elad Gil, and Nvidia, Perplexity is valued at approximately $18 billion as of mid‑2025.
Mass Adoption Through Airtel
A strategic partnership with Bharti Airtel has dramatically expanded Perplexity's reach in India. broadband and postpaid customers now receive one year of Perplexity Pro—a premium AI subscription—free, valued at ₹17,000. This initiative helped Perplexity overtake ChatGPT to become the top free app on Apple's India App Store within 48 hours of rollout.
Perplexity's promising future
In a recent X post, Srinivasan boasted of Comet's, Perlexity's new browser, abilities to order food directly, without the ned of an aggregator. "Interesting Comet use case that a user pointed out just now to me: Use Comet to order food directly from the restaurant (eg: Chipotle) instead of an aggregator delivery app. Cheaper. Friction of having to deal with random websites gone. And you still get the same meal delivered"
Many more such use cases will be added to both Perplexity AI and Comet. As competition heats up with the new ChatGPT Agent and Grok 4 release, it would be interesting to see how Perplexity stands out in the crowd and stays relevant.
You can try out Perplexity AI for free, whereas Comet access has been limited till now.
