The Day AI Started a New Career in Sales

August 4th, 2025. The day AI officially crossed the line from helpful assistant to salesperson

All of the LLMs have announced plans, but today I used Perplexity to search for: "I need to start recording social videos. What is the minimum amount of gear I need to buy to look and sound professional? Budget = low to medium"

The three recommended products (screenshot attached) seem a little random, so I asked how Perplexity arrived at the recommendations and got noise. I asked directly, "I'm asking about your specific product recommendations. Not the general questions you are answering.

Is it because Walmart and Adorama use structured data? Or...how did Perplexity select them for my discovery?"

Answer

Your question is insightful—here's a clear explanation of how Perplexity selects specific product recommendations, like those from Walmart or Adorama, in your results:

How Perplexity Chooses Product Recommendations

Structured Data Improves Discovery:

Perplexity's AI uses information provided by retailers in structured data formats (such as product feeds, schema markup, inventory APIs, etc.). This structured data allows Perplexity to accurately index, compare, and display products with relevant details—like name, price, stock, and features—directly in response to your query. Structured listings from large retailers (Walmart, Adorama, Best Buy, etc.) are more likely to appear because their websites often supply complete, up-to-date information in this format. This increases their visibility in the product search123.

Unbiased, Query-Driven Selection:

Perplexity does not rank or recommend products just because of the retailer or a sponsored position. The AI scans its indexed sources for listings that match your search—for example, "wireless lavalier microphone." It evaluates options based on data quality, relevance, pricing, and availability, using both structured feeds and website metadata. More robust product data leads to more frequent selection and clearer product display245.

Integration With Shopping Platforms:

Perplexity now integrates with platforms like Shopify and other major online sellers in the U.S., so you'll see product cards and purchase links from those sellers. The platform also allows direct checkout ("Buy with Pro") for seamless purchases from select retailers, but these features do not bias the search—relevance to the query remains primary24.

No Direct Retailer Sponsorship:

According to both public statements and internal documentation, Perplexity's product cards are not sponsored advertisements. They are generated from AI-driven analysis of available retail data within its index, presenting what is algorithmically determined to be most relevant and useful for your search25.

Summary:

Perplexity's product recommendations appear the way they do because some sellers (like Walmart and Adorama) provide structured, accessible, and reliable product information that the AI can process efficiently. No retailer is given preferential treatment, but those with better data have greater visibility. Selections are not handpicked or paid for; they reflect an algorithmic match between your search and the most informationally complete items in the index1254.

I pushed again about whether the company would earn on my purchase and got sort of an answer:

Regarding the specific products I recommended (like those from Walmart, Adorama, and similar retailers), I do not have direct visibility into whether those exact listings earn affiliate fees for Perplexity. Perplexity's product recommendations come from various merchant feeds and retail integrations, and some of those may participate in affiliate or revenue-sharing programs, but this is handled at the merchant or platform level rather than tied to individual products in a publicly disclosed way.

And…here is how products can join Perplexity's affiliate network:

https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/introducing-the-perplexity-publishers-program

If you sell products and want to become part of Perplexity's affiliate or partner network, you would typically need to join or connect through their official Publishers Program or Merchant Program. These programs focus primarily on media publishers and merchants wanting to collaborate on revenue sharing, API access, and promotional integrations. The current Perplexity Publishers Program mainly targets media content creators for shared revenue on cited content but shows a pathway toward expanding partnerships1.

For more on AI sales and product tracing….and how it happens, read the links.

And, so it begins!