“AI will replace…” Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas says this profession will vanish in 6 months

Aravind Srinivas

The future of some jobs might be on a ticking clock, six months to be exact. Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, believes recruiters may soon be history, thanks to the rapid rise of AI tools.

In a recent chat on The Verge’s Decoder podcast, Srinivas made a bold claim: “A recruiter’s work worth one week is just one prompt.” He says AI is no longer about helping humans with small tasks—it’s getting ready to completely take over full workflows.

At the heart of this change is Perplexity’s new AI browser, Comet. It’s not just a smarter search engine, but what Srinivas calls a proper “AI agent”, a tool that can take instructions, process information, and complete tasks from start to finish, all on its own.

According to him, recruiters will be among the first to feel the impact. Why? Because most of their work—sourcing candidates, reaching out to people, scheduling interviews can be done much faster by AI. Srinivas says Comet can, for example, find engineers from Stanford who’ve worked at top AI companies, collect their LinkedIn profiles, grab contact details, and even send personalised emails all without any human input.

But it doesn’t stop there. Executive assistants may also be at risk. Comet can log into your Gmail and Google Calendar (with your permission), manage scheduling, follow up on emails, resolve calendar conflicts, and even prepare summaries before your meetings.

Srinivas believes this will completely change how people work. Humans won’t be doing these tasks anymore—they’ll just tell AI what result they want, and the AI will handle the rest.

While it sounds efficient, the big question remains: is this a glimpse of a more productive future or the start of mass job losses? Either way, Srinivas is confident recruiters have just six months before AI takes over their desks.