Perplexity Develops Internal AI Coding Tool Used by Engineers Since May

Perplexity is developing an AI coding tool codenamed Teammate that builds and oversees software projects from start to finish, Insider reported. The tool has been used internally by Perplexity engineers since May, according to screenshots obtained by Business Insider.

An internal announcement states that it is built for long-horizon engineering work, including owning projects, investigating issues, and monitoring services.

Perplexity, the San Francisco-based AI search startup valued at $20 billion in a funding round last year, may launch the tool publicly, a person familiar with the matter said. Engineers have already used it to find bugs in internal systems. The tool is model-agnostic.

Perplexity chief technology officer Denis Yarats urged engineers to use AI for coding. In messages viewed by Business Insider, he wrote that by the end of the year or sooner, software engineers should stop looking at code and just use AI. Yarats also stated that slop is not going to be a thing as long as the code passes quality checks.

A Perplexity spokesperson declined to comment.