- Perplexity has updated its Comet Assistant AI to multitask across browser tabs
- Comet can also complete more difficult and complex quests with multiple steps
- The AI also now asks for user permission before acting directly in the browser
Perplexity Comet Assistant was built to do things online on your behalf. A new update enhances the AI to do that on a much bigger scale, enabling the revamped assistant to work across multiple tabs and stick with more complex jobs for longer stretches.
Comet is the center of Perplexity’s AI-infused browser. The AI is ever-present while perusing the web, picking up tasks, and streamlining research and digital paperwork. The update provides Comet with a longer attention span and sharper web awareness. Comet also has a better sense of boundaries, with the AI now asking for permission before taking action in your browser.
Comet’s ability to handle more types of actions at once is the standout improvement. The AI can multitask across tabs and apps to complete tasks, mimicking human behavior. Instead of bouncing back and forth between tabs for research, data entry, and reference, Comet will look at all three for you at once. —
And the new version of Comet Assistant is better at parsing complex web environments. That means it can do more with less micromanagement. You can ask it to look at multiple websites for flight deals all at once, for instance.
Of course, giving AI more capability means rethinking how it earns your trust. To that end, the team added a user control layer that puts you squarely in the driver’s seat. If Comet detects that a task could run more smoothly by directly clicking links, filling out forms, or extracting data from a page, it will ask for your go-ahead. That choice persists through the rest of the task.
Agent Comet
Perplexity claims there’s some measurable improvement with the upgraded Comet. Internal tests show a 23% improvement in successful task completion compared to the previous version. The real significance, though, is how well it handles multi-step instructions. Comet is much more likely to complete long, branching tasks that require context and follow-through.
All of this is good news for the average user who opens a browser in the morning, gets distracted by ten unrelated tabs, and ends the day wondering what actually got done. Comet now works like a background assistant that notices the mess and offers to clean it up, like extracting data from school attendance portals to make sure you’re on top of how often your child has missed class.
While competitors like Opera’s Neon and OpenAI’s Atlas AI browser are experimenting with autonomous AI helpers, Comet has taken a practical approach.
There are still limits, of course. Comet can’t yet run entire projects without supervision, and it doesn’t always understand nuance or prioritize tasks the way you might. But it’s getting closer to something more reliable, within limits. But if you’re bombarded with browser chaos, Comet might have enough virtual hands to sort everything out.
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