Perplexity Teammates bring proactive AI agents to the Mac

Teammates arrive on the Mac

Perplexity has brought its Teammates feature to the Mac this week, according to 9to5 Mac. The agentic AI feature was previously available only on iOS and the web, so Mac users had to use those versions to try it.

Teammates are described as proactive, task-oriented AI threads. The idea is that they keep working on a task without the user having to prompt them constantly, which sets them apart from a standard chatbot conversation.

How the AI agents work

According to 9to5 Mac, a Teammate is an AI agent that owns a piece of ongoing work. The user gives it a responsibility, such as managing a growth campaign, sorting incoming bug reports, tracking metrics or researching a new market, and the agent handles that work around the clock.

The agent plans the tasks itself, brings in more agents when the workload grows, and follows through until the result is ready for review. In other words, Perplexity positions Teammates as a small team of AI workers rather than a single assistant that answers one question at a time.

The feature builds on Perplexity's existing AI orchestration system, which coordinates how the agents work together.

How Teammates compare with rival features

9to5 Mac notes that the concept is similar to Grok Bot, another proactive agentic AI feature. Meta Muse and ChatGPT Dots are comparable as well, but those use a single chat model rather than supporting multiple instances working in parallel.

That distinction matters for anyone following the wider shift in AI products. Several companies are moving from chatbots that answer questions towards agents that carry out longer tasks on their own. Perplexity's approach with several cooperating agents is one way to handle bigger jobs.

Availability and what it means for users

Access to Teammates currently requires a paid Perplexity Max subscription, so the feature is not part of the free tier. Mac users who subscribe can now use the same agentic workflows that iOS and web users have had.

The Mac rollout closes a gap for people who work primarily on a desktop. Because the agents handle ongoing responsibilities rather than single requests, the feature may appeal to users who want help with recurring work such as reporting or research. As always with new AI features, how well the agents perform in practice remains to be seen, since the reports so far describe the launch rather than independent testing.