Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said that the startup's engineers are using AI coding tools. AI search engine startup Perplexity internally mandated the use of AI coding tools — and says that its engineers have been noticeably more productive. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas told Y Combinator that the startup "made it compulsory" for its engineers to use AI coding tools such as Cursor or GitHub Copilot. Perplexity's AI search engine reported a 20% month-over-month growth in May with 780 million queries. Comet uses Perplexity's AI search engine as its default tool, putting the company's core product front and center for users.