Rising Bharat Summit 2025: I wake up and work, think about work while not working; that's with everyone in AI, says Perplexity’s Aravind Srinivas

Founded in 2022 by Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho and Andy Konwinski, Perplexity AI was last valued at $9 billion when it raised $500 million funding led by Institutional Venture Partners.

It is challenging for operators, founders, and builders to catch a break in the fast-evolving artificial intelligence (AI) industry, Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and CEO, Perplexity AI, said while speaking at News18’s Rising Bharat Summit 2025.

“In AI, if you take a break and come back after three months, it would look like the world has changed completely,” Srinivas said. To stay updated, relevant and competitive, “I wake up, I work, and even when I don't work, I think about work, and that's what's happening with everyone in the AI industry,” he added.

In fact, the “AI industry has moved faster in the last three months for me than my first two years of starting Perplexity,” he said.

The turnaround speed and delivery of AI products and services is also happening in record time. Perplexity AI has “reduced coding to deployment time to days from weeks earlier” Srinivas added.

Perplexity AI, a free AI-powered answer engine, is seeking to disrupt Google's flagship search engine.

Founded in 2022 by Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho and Andy Konwinski, Perplexity AI was last valued at $9 billion when it raised $500 million funding led by Institutional Venture Partners.

The startup, which also counts Nvidia and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos among its backers, is said to be in talks to double its valuation to $18 billion, fuelled by demand for AI and related products.

Srinivas, meanwhile, urged venture capitalists (VCs) to take more risks and not to be worried about their capital.

"VCs in India are still very risk averse, and they like to invest in things that they wouldn't lose money on, rather than investing in things they would potentially make a lot of money on, but are okay, losing some money in some incorrect bets," he said at the summit.