CAMPUS STRATEGIST PROGRAM FROM PERPLEXITY AI

In the ever-expanding universe of generative AI, Perplexity’s conversational search engine has long stood out as a personal favorite tool of mine.

This week, it announced it’s launching a new “Campus Ambassador Program,” self-dubbed “Not your average ambassador program.” It’s open to all college students in the US—not just computer scientists!

The benefits of the program are laid out as follows:

• Managing an on campus marketing budget

• Monthly meetings with Perplexity’s leadership team

• Pro membership to Perplexity

• Early access to new features

• Perplexity merch

• For a select group of strategists (I’m not yet clear what qualifies for this, but I am assuming sales): a trip to San Francisco to visit their HQ.

The deadline to apply is August 30.

WHAT IS PERPLEXITY AI?

For those of you unfamiliar with Perplexity AI, which has been hailed by some as a “Google Killer,” Perplexity AI is essentially an AI-enhanced search engine designed to provide concise and relevant answers to user queries.

It combines elements of traditional search engines and AI chatbots, using large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4, Claude, Mistral Large, and its own custom models for processing.

Here are some key features and functionalities of Perplexity AI:

• Real-Time Search: Perplexity AI performs real-time searches to retrieve up-to-date information from various sources, including websites, forums, social media, and news outlets.

• Search Modes: It offers two types of searches: Quick Search for fast, basic answers, and Pro Search for more detailed, tailored responses that may include follow-up questions to refine the results

• Citations and References: Unlike some AI chatbots, Perplexity AI provides citations and references for the information it presents, allowing users to verify the sources and delve deeper into the topics, I highlight this because it’s been one of my favorite parts about Perplexity, and one of the features that will make it most likely to gain traction on university campuses.

• Additional Features: Perplexity AI can generate code snippets, solve math problems, summarize PDF documents, translate files, and organize searches into collections called Threads

• Freemium Model: The platform operates on a freemium model, offering basic functionalities for free, while advanced features are available through a paid subscription known as Perplexity Pro for $20 per month.

I love it. I promise I’m not being paid to shill it. It’s become one of three or four tools I use pretty much every day.

WHAT ARE AMBASSADOR PROGRAMS

Campus ambassador programs have become a popular strategy for both educational institutions and businesses to engage with students and promote their brands. (Red Bull comes to mind). The benefits to the companies are: brand exposure, cost-effective on-the-ground-marketing, etc.

It’s unclear whether or not Perplexity’s program is paid in any formal way. In general, this “exposure in lieu of financial compensation” model has been one of the main critiques against it—and for good reasons.

That said, in this case, regardless of financial compensation, I think Perplexity’s Strategist programs is a huge opportunity for those students fortunate enough to be selected. Founded in 2022, Perplexity AI has emerged as one of those rare “unicorns” in which just having them on your resume can be a huge value add to your professional development.

In the past year alone, Perplexity’s growth has been remarkable:

• Search Interest Growth: Interest in Perplexity AI grew by 858% over the past year, with a current search volume of 581,000 searches per month as of the latest data

• Monthly Growth Rate: The platform has been growing at a rate of 39% per month, indicating strong user engagement and increasing popularity

• User Base Expansion: Perplexity AI had around 10 million active monthly users as of early 2024, and this number increased to approximately 15 million active monthly users by the first quarter of 2024

• Revenue Growth: Both usage and monthly revenues have increased sevenfold since the start of 2024, showcasing the platform's rapid expansion and financial growth.

Beyond this, though, the whole industry is exploding and companies are ravenous for new talent to bring onboard as they raise funds. New talent with real experience at a Gen AI company—a top company, at that—is huge.

APPLYING TO THE PROGRAM

You can apply here until August 30.

You can play around with the tool itself for free at https://www.perplexity.ai/.