New research conducted by Perplexity in collaboration with Harvard reveals that users of AI agents in the Comet browser derive the greatest value from cognitive tasks rather than from automating simple daily activities. An analysis of hundreds of millions of anonymized queries shows that more than half of usage is focused on research, content summarization, document editing, and learning assistance.
The most active users come from the tech sector, academia, marketing, and finance, with AI adoption strongly correlated to education levels and economic development. The study also found that users tend to evolve over time — moving from lighter tasks such as travel planning toward more demanding, knowledge-based work.
While AI agents are often marketed as tools for handling trivial tasks, this research points to the opposite trend: users increasingly rely on them for deeper thinking, analysis, and professional productivity.
In Brief: Tech World Highlights
- Australia’s national marine science agency is testing AI-driven robotic vessels that scan the seafloor and deploy baby corals onto ceramic substrates to help restore the Great Barrier Reef.
- More than 800 Chicago residents signed a petition urging the city to pause a sidewalk robot delivery pilot until officials release safety and ADA-related data.
- The ARM Institute signed a five-year collaboration agreement with the Air Force Research Laboratory worth up to $87 million for research and development initiatives.
- Two teenagers from Lisbon built a six-legged AI-powered reforestation robot capable of climbing burned hillsides, analyzing soil, and planting saplings in one of Europe’s most wildfire-affected countries.
- Elon Musk said Tesla will “roughly double” its supervised Robotaxi fleet in Austin to around 60 vehicles next month — far below his earlier promise of reaching 500 vehicles by the end of the year.
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