Description:

An immersive 3-hour hands-on training on Perplexity AI: A groundbreaking generative AI-powered research assistant that blends conversational search with real-time, source-confirmed insights. Participants will start with a solid foundation of Generative AI, then dive into the history of Perplexity AI, its major strengths, and what sets it apart. Through instructor-led exercises, they will have hands-on practice applying Perplexity AI for in-depth research, summarization, and problem-solving.  The session explores multimodal competencies, professional-level tools, and API integration as well as a comparison between free and professional tiers. By the end of the training, participants will be able to utilize Perplexity AI to enhance research-heavy workflows, optimized content generation, and professional-level usage in various domains.

Duration:

Half day 

Course Code: BDT 427

Learning Objectives:

After this course, you will be able to:

1. Explore Perplexity AI’s interface and demonstrate its key research functionalities.
2. Apply Perplexity AI’s tools for source-verified content creation, deep research, and summarization.
3. Compare the features and benefits of free vs. professional tiers to optimize usage.

1. Tech Enthusiasts
2. Research Personnel
3. Content Creators
4. Developers
5. Non-technical professionals seeking to leverage Gen AI

1. Google/Gmail account for platform access
2. Curiosity about AI-driven workflows

Course Outline:

Module 1: Foundations of Perplexity AI – Free Tier

1. Understanding Generative AI & NLP Concepts
2. The 2025–2026 AI landscape: where Perplexity fits alongside ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude
3. Core NLP concepts: perplexity scores, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and citation grounding
4. Evolution from GPT-3 to reasoning models (o3, Opus 4) and specialized search architectures
5. Why real-time web grounding matters: knowledge cutoffs vs. live indexing
6. Perplexity AI: History, Architecture & Differentiators
7. Major 2025–2026 milestones: Deep Research, Labs, Comet browser

Module 2: Interface Mastery & Core Search –  Free Tier

1. Exploring Perplexity AI’s Interface & Research Capabilities
2. Focus modes: Web, Academic, YouTube, Reddit, and custom domain filters
3. Privacy controls: session toggles, the Snapshot widget, and opting out of data collection
4. Advanced fact-checking with parallel source analysis and reading citations
5. Learn Step-by-Step mode: interactive education for any topic (available to all users, 2026)
6. Privacy-first architecture: understanding data security vs. ChatGPT — Snapshot widget for session-level controls
7. Hands-on Exercises

Module 3: Deep Research & Spaces –  Free Tier (limited)

1. Deep Research: autonomous multi-step queries across hundreds of sources → structured report
2. Creating a Space: setting topics, uploading reference docs, inviting collaborators, permission settings
3. Asking questions across uploaded files — Perplexity as a personal RAG engine
4. Team collaboration features and API credit management
5. Hands-on: Generate a Deep Research report on a current industry topic

Module 4: Real-World Use Cases & Workflows –  Free Tier

1. Finance: real-time stock quotes, earnings data, and peer comparisons (launched Oct 2024, via Financial Modeling Prep)
2. Content creation: drafting blog posts, reports, and emails with live web research embedded
3. Technical research: code debugging, architectural reviews, and AI-assisted programming
4. Academic workflows: summarizing papers, finding counterarguments, building annotated bibliographies

Module 5: Labs, Model Switching & Advanced Pro Features –  Pro Tier ($20/mo)

1. Perplexity Labs / Create Files & Apps (launched May 2025, Pro exclusive)
2. Multi-Model Switching (Pro exclusive)
3. Pro model roster (2026): GPT-5, Claude 4 Sonnet, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Perplexity Sonar
4. When to switch models: reasoning tasks vs. writing vs. broad research
5. Image generation: generating visuals directly in Perplexity’s interface (Pro exclusive)
6. Video generation: Veo 3.1 powered, up to 8-second videos with audio (Pro and above, 2025)

Training material provided: Yes (Digital format)