Perplexity AI makes its play for government use

Another artificial intelligence company is staking its claim in the government marketplace. 

Perplexity AI, an AI-powered search engine, is currently piloting its tools in various federal agencies. Thousands of government workers are accessing Perplexity’s public platforms with a .gov or .mil email domain, too, and the company is already in “active discussions” with the General Services Administration on how to formalize its product offerings in the federal market. 

And, later Monday, the AI company will become the latest to offer a government-focused product suite. 

“Perplexity for Government” is designed to provide enhanced security features for federal workers who access Perplexity from whitelisted government locations, the company told FedScoop. 

“A universal truth about these public platforms is one, feds are using them,” said Jerry Ma, Perplexity’s vice president of policy and global affairs. “Two, feds are getting value out of them, but not nearly as much as they could if they were using the frontier technologies.”

The federal workforce is increasingly turning to generative AI to perform tasks and streamline workflows, as the Trump administration encourages its use in the workplace. Ma’s comments highlight how federal workers may not be waiting for formally procured platforms, even as some of the largest technology companies compete to do business with the government. 

Perplexity’s platform utilizes large language models from other companies — such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude — to perform real-time internet searches and present summaries to users. 

Under the Perplexity for Government launch, federal workers who are logged into a government network or using a federal email domain will have access to “enterprise-level security” top models from most AI providers like ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude and Perplexity’s Sonar model, according to Ma.

The additional security aims to protect federal and sensitive information, and Ma said Perplexity intends for the protections to extend to all government users, including those in the military and related domains. Users do not need a Perplexity account if they are on a government network. 

Beginning Monday, Perplexity will automatically identify federal networks.

“Most agencies have subnets that are either a public record or in one of these widely used sort of commercial databases out there. And we use network telemetry based on those public records and other information in order to be able to detect the requests that need to be placed under these benefits and enhanced protections,” said Ma, who most recently served as the chief information officer for the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office. 

Should the auto-identification process miss certain networks, Ma noted agency chief information officers, chief information security officers or other authorized officials can also submit any network ranges they would like explicit coverage for. 

“For whatever holes are remaining, we are giving agency CIOs the option without signing an agreement, without signing a contract or paying us a dime. Tell us what network ranges you’re worried about and we will make sure those are absolutely, positively covered as well,” Ma said. 

Perplexity states it is the only AI company without “opt-in” security, meaning their security settings are by default for government workers, as opposed to other companies that offer security through specific products. 

Separately, Perplexity is also announcing a government-tailored version of its Perplexity Enterprise Pro, which will cost agencies $0.25, according to a company fact sheet shared with FedScoop. Agencies can have a 15-month runway with the product, which can begin at any time within the current administration. 

Ma told FedScoop that Perplexity is “accelerating” discussions with federal officials to potentially get the product on the General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedule. He said he hopes agencies will reach out to Perplexity to determine the “fastest path forward.” 

“But agencies can also look forward to these offerings being officially made available under the usual governmentwide acquisition channels in due course, and we’re working very hard and we’ve had a lot of very fruitful discussions with GSA officials to make that happen,” Ma said.

The product will be compliant once FedRAMP approval is received, according to Ma. 

The GSA has announced a series of “OneGov” deals with other AI companies that are offering their products to the government for a steep discount. OpenAI, Anthropic and Google are selling their AI models to government agencies for $1 or less for one year, while Box and Microsoft struck similar discount deals. 

Perplexity’s interest in working with the government comes as the company considers buying the social media platform TikTok, which is currently owned by China-based ByteDance. 

When asked how a bid to buy TikTok could interact with Perplexity’s public sector work, Ma said “the short answer is we’re committed to serving feds no matter what happens on a [mergers and acquisitions] front.”