In a strategic maneuver designed to capitalize on the upcoming holiday spending surge, artificial intelligence startup Perplexity announced on Wednesday that it will roll out a free “agentic” shopping product for U.S. users next week.

This launch marks a significant escalation in the race to monetize AI search, moving beyond simple information retrieval to direct transaction facilitation. The initiative is anchored by a robust infrastructure partnership with PayPal, which will enable users to purchase items directly from more than 5,000 merchants without ever leaving the Perplexity search engine interface.

The core value proposition of this new offering centers on the concept of “agentic” commerce—a term increasingly used to describe AI that acts on behalf of the user rather than merely advising them. Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, defined this pivot by noting that while most consumers still desire the autonomy to conduct their own research, they demand a streamlined bridge between discovery and acquisition.

“The agentic part is the seamless purchase right from the answer,” Shevelenko told CNBC in an interview. “Most people want to still do their own research. They want that streamlined and simplified, and so that’s the part that is agentic in this launch.”

The “agentic” component effectively collapses the traditional sales funnel, allowing for a seamless purchase immediately following the answer to a user’s query. To achieve this, the new free product utilizes memory from a user’s previous searches to better detect shopping intent and deliver highly personalized results, an evolution from the company’s initial “Buy With Pro” offering released for paid subscribers late last year.

A critical operational shift in this launch involves the “Merchant of Record” status, a detail with significant legal and logistical implications. Under the previous “Buy With Pro” model, Perplexity acted as the intermediary that completed purchases. However, under the new framework, the merchants themselves will serve as the merchants of record.

This means the retailers will retain control over the transaction lifecycle, including customer service and returns, while utilizing PayPal’s backend architecture to process the payments. Michelle Gill, who leads PayPal’s agentic strategy, emphasized that this infrastructure includes the company’s buyer protection policies, ensuring that users remain reimbursed if problems arise—a necessary layer of trust as consumers begin transacting on novel AI platforms.

The timing and structure of this rollout place Perplexity in direct confrontation with OpenAI, which is aggressively building its own e-commerce ecosystem. OpenAI announced a similar feature called Instant Checkout in September, allowing ChatGPT users to transact directly with initial partners like Etsy, Shopify, and eventually PayPal.

A key point of divergence in their business models appears to be monetization; while OpenAI has explicitly stated it will take a fee from purchases made through its “Instant Checkout,” Perplexity has declined to share whether it will earn revenue from these transactions. This silence suggests Perplexity may be prioritizing user growth and market share over immediate monetization in the early stages of this “next era of commerce.”

What’s in it for Perplexity?

Some analysts believe that this structural change significantly de-risks Perplexity’s business model by shielding the company from three specific liabilities. First, it mitigates financial and fraud liability. In the previous intermediary model, Perplexity was exposed to chargeback risks if a user utilized a stolen credit card; now, PayPal processes the payment directly between the user and the merchant, removing Perplexity from the flow of funds. Second, it alleviates the burden of sales tax compliance. Because the merchant is now the record holder, they retain the responsibility for calculating, collecting, and remitting sales tax, allowing Perplexity to avoid the complex legal status of a “marketplace facilitator” across thousands of jurisdictions.

Finally, the shift transfers operational and product liability back to the retailer. Perplexity explicitly stated that merchants will handle processes like purchases, customer service, and returns directly.

Furthermore, Gill emphasized that PayPal’s buyer protection policies will apply to these transactions. This ensures that users remain reimbursed if problems arise, but the operational overhead of triaging returns and defective products falls on the retailer and PayPal rather than Perplexity. This pivot transforms Perplexity from a logistics-heavy reseller into a scalable technology platform.

Nokia has laid out an ambitious reinvention plan centered on artificial intelligence, placing itself squarely in the escalating global race among the world’s biggest technology companies to dominate the next wave of digital infrastructure.

The Finnish telecoms equipment maker said the shift marks a structural reset designed to simplify its business, expand beyond its traditional markets, and ride a sector-wide belief that AI is the next major engine of corporate growth.

Beginning in 2026, Nokia will reorganize its operations into two major units. The first, Network Infrastructure, will focus on AI-powered and data-center-grade technologies such as optical networking, routing, and cloud connectivity. The second, Mobile Infrastructure, will oversee the company’s core telecoms operations, including the radio-access equipment that powers mobile networks.

The new structure will support a financial overhaul. Nokia is now targeting an annual comparable operating profit of 2.7 billion to 3.2 billion euros by 2028, up from 2 billion euros last year. That would amount to as much as a 60% jump in profitability.

The move comes as virtually every major tech company intensifies its AI push. Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, IBM, and startups like OpenAI and Anthropic have poured tens of billions into training compute, data-center expansions, and model development. Executives across Silicon Valley now describe AI as the next major platform shift — a transformation akin to the rise of the smartphone, cloud computing, or the early internet. Nokia’s plan signals its determination not to be left behind as AI becomes the focal point of both innovation and investment.

Nokia’s strategic pivot follows a difficult period for telecom equipment suppliers, who have been hit by a global slowdown in 5G rollouts and weak capital spending from mobile operators. In search of steadier ground, the company has been building deeper ties with the cloud and AI ecosystem. Earlier this year, it acquired U.S. optical networking firm Infinera, whose technology is widely used by hyperscale cloud providers. The purchase has already boosted sales and expanded Nokia’s reach into the fast-growing data-centre connectivity market.

That expansion was reinforced when Nvidia pumped $1 billion into Nokia for a 2.9% stake, an endorsement from the most influential chipmaker in the AI boom. Nvidia’s investment signaled confidence in Nokia’s attempt to realign itself with the needs of AI infrastructure builders rather than relying solely on telecoms operators.

At Nokia’s capital markets day in New York, CEO Justin Hotard pointed out that the balance of power in global connectivity has shifted.

“The largest hyperscalers are now investing more each quarter than the largest telcos invest in a year,” he said.

Hotard noted that nine of the world’s ten biggest cloud providers now rely on Nokia technology, underscoring the company’s growing relevance beyond mobile networks.

Alongside its commercial strategy, Nokia announced plans to launch a new defense incubation unit to develop secure connectivity for Western governments — a reflection of rising geopolitical tensions and growing spending on cyber-secure communication capabilities.

The company also intends to cut operating expenses dramatically. It aims to bring group operating costs down to 150 million euros by 2028 from 350 million euros today, freeing up capital for AI-heavy infrastructure and product development.

Investors, however, were not impressed in the immediate term. Nokia shares fell as much as 6%, making it one of the weakest performers on the Stoxx 600 on Wednesday, though the stock remains up about 25% so far this year. Analysts said the sell-off stemmed from lofty expectations after the recent rally.

“Market expectations were higher after a strong share price increase,” said Atte Riikola of Inderes.

Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight added that the strategy was not dramatically different from the company’s existing direction and warned that the AI build-out is capital-intensive with uncertain long-term returns.

Nokia’s plan aligns with the wider industry narrative that AI is now seen as the defining force of the digital economy. Every major player wants to secure a role, whether through chipmaking, cloud infrastructure, model development, or the communications backbone that keeps these systems running.

The next several years will determine whether Nokia’s repositioning itself at the heart of the AI surge is enough to transform its fortunes.