In partnership with
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$2.8B
Labor-equivalent work done by a $20 tool most pros are using like Google — in just 16 days.
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On Friday's Q2 earnings call, Apple's CFO did something rare. He named a competitor's AI by name — and said it was the reason developers are choosing the Mac.
That AI is Perplexity. Not the chat box you've been using like a fancy Google. The other thing Perplexity has been quietly building underneath it.
Three layers, actually. Most pros only know about one.
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THE GIST
Apple's CFO mentioned Perplexity by name on Friday's earnings call. Mac minis are sold out worldwide. Most pros only use Perplexity's chat layer — and miss the browser and 24/7 Mac mini agent underneath that just did $2.8B in labor-equivalent work in 16 days.
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Apple CFO Kevan Parekh dropped this on Friday's earnings call:
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"Leading AI developers, like Perplexity, are choosing Mac as their preferred platform to build enterprise-grade AI assistants that power autonomous agents."
— KEVAN PAREKH, APPLE CFO · Q2 2026 EARNINGS CALL
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Mac mini and Mac Studio configurations are sold out worldwide. Apple confirmed availability stays "extremely constrained" for months. The reason isn't iPhone demand spillover. It's Perplexity Personal Computer.
And Personal Computer is just the third layer.
Blu Dot surpasses 2,000% ROAS with self-serve CTV ads
Home furniture brand Blu Dot blew up on CTV with help from Roku Ads Manager. Here’s how:
After a test campaign reached 211,000 households and achieved 1,010% ROAS, the brand went all in to promote its annual sales event. It removed age and income constraints to expand reach and shifted budget to custom audiences and retargeting, where intent was strongest.
The results speak for themselves. As Blu Dot increased their investment by 10x, ROAS jumped to 2,308% and more page-view conversions surpassed 50,000.
“For CTV campaigns, Roku has been a top performer,” said Claire Folkestad, Paid Media Strategist, Blu Dot. “Comping to our other platforms, we have seen really strong ROAS… and highly efficient CPMs, lower than any other CTV partner we've worked with.”
Using Roku Ads Manager, the campaign moved from a pilot to a permanent performance engine for the brand.
It's Monday. Every department already has context. Nobody prepped anything.
Your CFO opens Slack. There's a weekly Stripe revenue recap in #finance with a churned-accounts flag and a net-new breakdown. She didn't ask for it.
Your head of product opens Slack. There's a GitHub summary in private channel: PRs merged, PRs stale, Linear tickets that moved. He didn't ask for it.
Your marketing lead opens Slack. There's a Google Ads performance comparison in private channel, with a note: "Meta CPA crept up 18% this week. Might be worth pausing the broad match campaign." She didn't ask for it either.
All-hands at 10am. Everyone already knows the numbers. The meeting is about decisions, not catch-up.
That's what happens when one colleague works across every tool your company uses. Not one department's assistant. The whole company's coworker.
Viktor lives in Slack. Top 5 on Product Hunt, 130 comments. SOC 2 certified. Your data never trains models.
"Not only have we caught up on several months of work, we are automating manual tasks and expanding our operations to things previously not possible at scale." - Jesse Guarino, Director, Torque King 4x4
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THE THREE LAYERS
What everyone's missing
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$2.8 BILLION
IN LABOR-EQUIVALENT WORK · SINCE APRIL 16
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Inside the chat layer, you pick the model per question. This alone is the feature most people miss — Perplexity is the only place to switch between Claude, GPT, Gemini, and a Chinese open-source model on the same query, side by side.
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The Prompt (Copy This)
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You are my personal Perplexity strategist. Before recommending anything, ask me: 1. What's my role and industry? 2. What does a typical week look like — what tasks eat the most hours? 3. Mac, Windows, or both? Do I have a spare always-on machine? 4. Budget tolerance: $20/mo, $200/mo, or "free only"? 5. Comfort with AI agents acting autonomously: low, medium, or high? Then tell me, in this exact order: A. Which Perplexity layer fits my situation (Chat, Comet, or Personal Computer) B. Which model in the picker I should default to and why C. Three specific tasks from my week I should delegate first D. The exact double-CMD prompt I'd use to start each one E. What I should NOT delegate yet, and why Be specific. No generic advice.
Apple doesn't shout out competitors. The Mac mini doesn't sell out by accident. The future of work isn't a chat window — it's a layered system you orchestrate.
The pros figuring this out now will look like wizards in twelve months.
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▶ Watch: Personal Computer, by Perplexity
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