Perplexity AI on Tuesday unveiled Computer for Professional Finance, a new platform that brings automated, multi-step research and analysis workflows to investment teams and financial analysts. The launch represents the company’s most direct challenge yet to entrenched financial data terminals such as Bloomberg and FactSet.
Licensed Data and Bring-Your-Own Access
The platform allows finance teams to connect their existing data subscriptions through MCP connectors for Morningstar, PitchBook, Daloopa, and Carbon Arc, a “bring your own license” approach designed to let firms avoid paying for duplicate data access. Teams without terminal subscriptions can still use the platform’s built-in finance tools, which draw on data from 14 providers including Quartr and Fiscal.
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas announced the product on LinkedIn, writing that “Computer now supports users to bring their own license for data providers like Morningstar, PitchBook, Daloopa and Carbon Arc,” alongside 35 dedicated finance workflows “representative of what an analyst does daily”.
Automated Workflows and Traceability
The platform ships with 35 prebuilt analyst workflows spanning ten segments including real estate, private equity, and public equities. Use cases range from generating company tearsheets and sourcing screens to producing annotated stock charts that overlay price movements with catalysts such as ownership changes and analyst ratings.
Every numeric output links back to its source document. According to Perplexity, hovering over a data point shows its origin and timestamp, and for values derived from SEC filings, the system displays the calculation chain and links to specific filing pages. The company said this traceability feature is aimed at reducing concerns over AI-generated errors in financial research.
Positioning Against the Bloomberg Terminal
The launch builds on Perplexity Computer, the company’s broader agentic AI system introduced earlier this year, which orchestrates multiple AI models to execute complex tasks. Industry observers have noted the product positions Perplexity as a lower-cost alternative to traditional financial terminals, which can cost nearly $30,000 per user annually. The platform is available through Microsoft Teams and an Agent API, with an Excel add-in coming soon.
