New tool harnesses data from multiple sources to provide users with health insights as tech giants vie for AI health dominance.
Perplexity has launched Perplexity Health, heralding the company’s entry into an AI-powered consumer health market that is fast becoming one of the most contested areas in Big Tech – and one that has potentially significant implications for longevity. The announcement puts Perplexity squarely in the mix of a crowded and rapidly evolving field, where the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic and Amazon have already begun staking claims.
Claiming millions of people already use its AI-powered search platform to ask health-related questions, the company said it created Perplexity Health to improve its ability to respond to such questions by leveraging personal health information to allow users to receive answers grounded in their own records, trends and daily data. Targeting the fragmented nature of health data, which is often spread across provider portals, lab accounts, pharmacy apps and wearable dashboards, Perplexity Health aims to pull those pieces together into a single view, combining medical records, lab results and activity data in one place and presenting them through a personalized dashboard that tracks metrics and biomarker trends over time.
The new product is described as a “suite of connectors” that link Perplexity Computer, the company’s AI agent platform, to personal health sources including Apple Health, electronic health records from care providers, and data platforms such as Fitbit, Ultrahuman and Withings. A question about resting heart rate, for example, could be answered in the context of recent activity, cardiac history and bloodwork rather than in isolation.
From a longevity perspective, Perplexity Health could help individuals spot risks earlier, track changes over time and make more informed decisions about prevention and care. Over time, that kind of continuous, personalized understanding of an individual’s health has the potential to support earlier interventions and healthier behaviors.
Perplexity says the new product will include clear guardrails, including guidance on when people should seek care, rather than encouraging users to rely on AI as a substitute for clinicians. As if to emphasize this point, the company also announced the creation of the Perplexity Health Advisory Board, a group of physicians, researchers and health technology experts, including renowned longevity scientist Dr Eric Topol, author of Super Agers, who will test the company’s safeguards and product decisions against the standards of evidence-based medicine.
When it comes to privacy and data governance, Perplexity says any health data connected to the platform will be encrypted, protected with strict access controls and supported by tools that allow users to manage or delete their information. Users will also be able to disconnect health data sources such as electronic health records or wearables, and the company says the information will not be used to train AI models or sold to third parties.
It appears healthcare companies are also keen to get on board. Consumer preventive health platform, Function, has already announced it will allow members to securely connect their data with Perplexity Health in the coming weeks. Through the connector, Function members will be able to bring their lab test results and clinician-reviewed summaries into Perplexity so that information can sit alongside activity data and medical records inside the platform.
“AI is most powerful when it’s personal,” said Function CEO Jonathan Swerdlin. “By connecting Function members’ health data to Perplexity Health, we’re creating a new intelligence layer that transforms disconnected information into answers people can trust and act on.”
The first rollout of Perplexity Health will be limited to the platform’s Pro and Max users in the US over the coming weeks, with broader cohorts and geographies expected later.