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Perplexity AI Enterprise Pro – Overview and features
The University of Maryland has secured a one-year Enterprise Pro license for Perplexity AI, available to all UMD faculty and staff. This offering is part of a year-long trial to evaluate the value and benefits of Perplexity AI in supporting academic research, teaching, and administrative work. We invite the UMD community to explore its capabilities and share feedback throughout this trial period.
Perplexity AI combines advanced AI search with citation-backed responses and customizable tools that support research, exploration, and content creation. Below is an overview of the main features available through the Enterprise Pro license.
Accessing Perplexity
- Go to https://www.perplexity.ai.
- Select Continue with Google, enter your email, and select Continue with email, or click Single sign-on (SSO) and log in using your university credentials on the CAS screen.
- You’ll automatically be recognized under the UMD Enterprise Pro license once you’re signed in.
Pro search
Perplexity search delivers concise, cited answers drawn from reputable sources, along with related questions that help you explore topics in greater depth.
With Pro Search, Perplexity performs multi-step reasoning using leading large language models (LLMs) to gather more comprehensive, nuanced results. This mode can be particularly useful for academic research, literature reviews, and the synthesis of complex information.
Example: A Pro Search can generate a comparative analysis across multiple research papers.
Search filters
Perplexity lets you refine results with domain-specific filters. You can limit your searches to categories such as:
- Web - Search across the entire Internet
- Academic papers – Pulls from research repositories and journals.
- Social discussions – Surfaces insights from forums like Reddit for real-world perspectives.
- Financial filings – Access official business and market filings.
- Org files - Search files from your organization
- My files - Search files you provide
These filters help focus searches on the most relevant information for your needs.
Spaces
Spaces are collaborative or personal collections that let you organize threads by topic. You can also add custom instructions to each Space to shape the AI’s behavior or tone.
For example:
- In a Teaching Resources Space, set the AI to act as an instructional designer.
- In a Research Projects Space, prompt it to respond as an academic researcher.
Spaces make it easy to maintain context across multiple related conversations and share findings with peers. These are similar to Google Gemini Gems, TerpAI Personal Agents, or ChatGPT GPTs.
Deep research
Exclusive to the Pro plan, Deep Research performs a multi-minute analysis across hundreds of sources to create an in-depth report. The output often includes charts, code samples, and detailed summaries—making it a powerful tool for academic writing, data analysis, or grant preparation.
Because it takes longer to process, Deep Research is best suited to complex or high-value topics that require comprehensive exploration.
Tasks
Definition
A Task in Perplexity AI is a saved, automated search that continually monitors a topic or question for new or updated information. Once created, Perplexity re-runs the search at your chosen interval and notifies you when fresh insights are available.
Purpose
Tasks help you:
- Track evolving topics (e.g., new research, tech updates, or security vulnerabilities).
- Save time by automating repetitive or ongoing queries.
- Stay informed with regular summaries delivered directly within Perplexity or via email notifications.
How Tasks work
- You start with a search query or research thread.
- Click the three dots (⋮) in the upper-right corner of the thread.
- Select Turn this into a Task.
- Choose the frequency — once, daily, weekly, or monthly.
- Save your Task.
Perplexity will automatically rerun that search according to your schedule and alert you when new results or changes are found. You can start from a blank task and provide full agent system instructions.
Where to find your Tasks
- To view and manage your active tasks, go to your profile menu and select the Tasks section on Perplexity.ai.
- For more information, review the Perplexity Tasks knowledge article for more details.
Perplexity pages
Once you’ve built a research thread, Perplexity Pages lets you turn it into a publishable, web-ready article with one click. The resulting page is beautifully formatted and shareable, making it ideal for posting findings, writing summaries, or compiling course materials.
Faculty may use Pages to share class reading summaries or collaborative research insights with colleagues.
Trial period and next steps
This Enterprise Pro license is being offered for one year as part of a campus-wide evaluation. The Division of IT will work closely with UMD faculty and staff to understand:
- How Perplexity AI supports research, teaching, and administrative work.
- Which features provide the most value.
- How might this service integrate with other university tools?
- Non-Requirement in Coursework or Job Duties - The tool must not be required for any course activities, assignments, or job responsibilities during this trial/pilot period.
We are finalizing configuration and preparing support articles, training materials, and communications to ensure a smooth rollout. More information, including access details and user guides, will be shared in the coming weeks.
We appreciate your patience as we complete setup and look forward to learning alongside our community during this exciting trial.