The company is adding a Perplexity AI app to all of its new TVs and even older ones.

You’re sprawled on the couch, watching the latest stream of your favorite show. Why not plan your next vacation while you’re at it? That’s the thought behind Samsung’s latest AI innovation, the Perplexity TV app. It’s a standalone AI agent available on all 2025 Samsung TVs and, later this year, on 2023 and 2024 TVs with the latest OS upgrade.

Earlier this month, at the Berlin consumer-electronics show IFA 2025, the company introduced Samsung Vision AI, which allowed TV viewers to access more information about the shows and actors they were watching. Viewers can also use the Vision AI Companion in other ways, such as to receive recommendations for shows and movies. The Perplexity TV app builds on Vision AI’s skillset.

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Samsung integrated AI across a wide range of its products, including smartphones, appliances, earbuds, tablets and TVs, as part of the company’s vision to “leap forward as an AI-driven company that makes the best use of AI, works with AI, and grows with AI,” executive Roh Tae-Moon said at the 2025 Tech Forum in Silicon Valley last week.

‘Curiosity can strike at any time’

Samsung partnered with Perplexity, a self-proclaimed “free AI-powered answer engine.” Samsung says its Perplexity TV app can provide the weather forecast, find you the closest pizza shop or tell you the date of the Kentucky Derby.

Ryan Foutty, Perplexity’s vice president of business, said creating an AI app for TVs makes sense because “curiosity can strike at any time” and that consumers should be able to access information from AI regardless of the AI-driven interfaces they are using.

Use the apps tab on your Samsung TV to access the Perplexity TV App, or hit the AI button on your remote to access Samsung’s Vision AI Companion. You can also ask the AI questions by speaking into the built-in microphone on the remote and TV, or using the on-screen keyboard.

A Samsung representative said that, like the company’s other TVs, you can’t watch content in the background while the Perplexity App is open. When you open the Perplexity App, you will be redirected to the app interface.

CNET expert isn’t yet sold

CNET’s David Katzmaier saw Samsung’s AI-enhanced TVs earlier this year at CES 2025, and isn’t quite convinced that this is a vital addition.

“At first blush, a built-in AI agent doesn’t seem to me like a good reason to choose one TV over another,” Katzmaier said. “To make it worthwhile, Samsung needs to prove that it’s better than, say, Perplexity on your phone.”

YouTuber Austin Evans of Overstock Media says he understands “the appeal to load AI in as many places as possible,” but not on TVs.

“I can’t imagine planning a trip using Perplexity on my TV when almost any other device in my life would be quicker and easier to (perform) that task with,” Evans said. “Feels like a solution in search of a problem, at least for now.”