Windows: Perplexity's PC Agent Manages Files and Cloud

On Windows, the "Personal Computer" agent from Perplexity was tested across five concrete scenarios. It produced summaries of local documents and OneDrive, identified six unanswered emails with ready-to-use drafts, converted old Office files, and scheduled a daily alert at 9 AM ET. The tool relies on access to local files, the use of native apps, and connectors to major clouds.

Five Completed Tasks: Summaries, Email Sorting, and Conversions

The agent first scanned the PDFs in a local downloads folder to produce a two-page summary while identifying duplicates. On OneDrive, it located relevant Word documents and generated a five-page summary that was verified without errors by the user. In terms of email, it searched for exchanges from the past six months that contained unanswered questions, identified six emails, and drafted response suggestions for reuse in Outlook. For file conversion, handling old Word and Excel documents proved more challenging than expected, but the agent navigated the obstacles and successfully completed the task. Finally, monitoring announcements related to Doctor Who was scheduled with a notification set for every morning at 9:00 AM ET after verifying official sources.

Local Access, Windows Apps, and Supported Cloud Connectors

The application can read and process files stored locally and utilize native software installed on Windows. It also connects to remote services, managing files hosted on OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox.

Authorizing the Agent and Adding Third-Party Services

Upon first launch, a permission request prompts the user to enable the AI's access to local files via the "Enable Local Access" button. Connectors can then be added to link third-party services: users must go through the "Customize" option, select the service, click on "Add a Connector," and then authenticate.