The technology industry has long had a talent for making friends with the very people it threatens to replace. Television networks once courted the newspaper critics who had declared them a menace to civilization. Now the artificial intelligence companies are doing much the same with the creators whose livelihoods may depend on not being rendered obsolete by software.
Perplexity, the A.I.-powered search company that has positioned itself as a friendlier alternative to Google, is hiring a senior creator-marketing executive at a salary of $175,000 to $225,000, with a budget described as running into the "multi-millions." The company said the role is a backfill for an existing position rather than a new function, and that the job has since been filled.
The listing, which Digiday obtained before it was taken down, described a mandate that goes beyond the usual influencer glad-handing. Perplexity wants its creator partnerships tied to conversion metrics, not merely impressions — a performance-marketing bent that suggests the company is thinking about these relationships the way a direct-response advertiser would think about television spots. One requirement stood out: reviewing creator "builds" made with Perplexity's product to ensure they are original and actually demonstrate what the software does. (What, you were expecting the ads to say, "Against originality"?)
Perplexity said it already has partnerships with hundreds of creators, including what it called "cultural juggernauts" like Lewis Hamilton and Joe Rogan.
The company is hardly alone in its courtship. Anthropic hired Lexie Barnhorn from Notion in March to oversee influencer marketing. OpenAI acquired a creator media company this year, and separately flew a group of creators to New York for what was intended to be a relationship-building trip — an effort that, by several accounts, did the brand more harm than good.
Ben Woods, who leads creator-economy research at Enders Analysis, said the size of Perplexity's planned budget signals that the company views creators as a serious promotional channel. But he cautioned that audiences are increasingly willing to challenge their favorite creators when a partnership feels forced.
"Most audiences are not afraid to challenge their favourite creators if a partnership feels disingenuous or the messaging becomes too corporate," Mr. Woods said.
Which may explain the emphasis on demonstration over endorsement. In an industry where the product's appeal is inseparable from the fear it inspires, credibility is not a nice-to-have. It is the whole point.
Original story published in Digiday: "Perplexity is betting big on creators", by Krystal Scanlon, Seb Joseph