Sick and tired of spreadsheets? Perplexity’s new tools can help with that

AI-powered search engine provider Perplexity has unveiled a new tool aimed at automating tasks such as spreadsheet building and web application development.

Perplexity Labs, which was unveiled on Thursday, allows users to craft spreadsheets, reports, and build dashboards and web applications, the company revealed in a blog post.

“Using Perplexity is like having a dedicated answer machine available to you 24/7,” the company said. “Using Labs is like having a team. A Perplexity Lab is for anyone who wants to bring an entire idea to life.”

“Since launching the world’s first answer engine two and half years ago, millions of people turn to Perplexity every day for a more accessible way to fuel their curiosity. Labs allow you to convert your curiosity into action.”

The platform can be accessed using the mode selector in the browser input bar on the web, iOS, and Android.

Perplexity also revealed this will be “coming soon” for Mac and Windows apps, but did not provide an exact date for launch.

Under the hood of Perplexity Labs

Perplexity says the new Labs feature will include a suite of tools specifically designed to “turn your ideas and to-do’s into work that’s been done”.

It’s a rather vague statement, but looking at the features available for users, this includes deep web browsing, code execution, and chart and image creation capabilities.

Labs appears to be catering to a wide range of professionals across an equally wide range of business domains. The company says it can be used to create marketing campaigns or analyze business finances.

For workers tearing their hair out working with spreadsheets, the tool looks rather useful. Labs can write and execute code to structure datasets, for example, apply formulas, and create charts, text documents, and new spreadsheets based on user prompts.

Notably, Labs is designed to be “self-supervised”, meaning it can work alone in the background, albeit for short bursts of time. In its blog post unveiled the tool, Perplexity said it can perform 10 minutes “or more” of self-supervised work.

“Labs can accomplish in 10 minutes what would previously have taken days of work, tedious research, and coordination of many different skills,” the company said.

“Most importantly, the magic behind Labs is what Perplexity is best known for — accurate answers that help you make better decisions.”

The new toolkit will be made available for subscribers on Perplexity’s Pro plan, which is available for $20 per month.

The tool features a simple interface, with all files created during workflows organized in an ‘Assets’ tab. From here, users can view and download projects and previous works.

Perplexity Labs also includes a Project Gallery, which allows users to access pre-set templates across a variety of different use-cases.

Big tech eyes AI to tackle spreadsheet woes

Perplexity isn’t the first company to try and take the pain out of spreadsheets for enterprise users. In fact, with the advent of generative AI – particularly agentic AI solutions – it’s become something of a booming market.

Microsoft’s Copilot tool, for example, can be used to automate tasks in Excel while Gemini for Workspace also offers similar features for Sheets.

Earlier this year, Sourcetable, a startup behind a “self-driving” spreadsheet tool, raised $4.3 million to streamline processes for data analysts.

Sourcetable’s autonomous spreadsheet tool uses AI to essentially simplify data analysis for users. As ITPro reported at the time, natural language prompts allow users to give the tool an array of instructions, from editing documents to carrying out multi-step activities.

This includes the ability to create and edit financial models, generate spreadsheet templates, build pivot tables, and clean and enrich data.

Sourcetable’s founders said the aim of the tool was to replicate the “vibe coding” experience that was taking the software development place by storm in early 2025.

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