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Aravind Srinivas
At the Cerebral Valley AI Conference in San Francisco on November 14, over 300 attendees, including founders, investors, and AI engineers, voted Perplexity AI as the startup most likely to fail, ahead of OpenAI.
AI startup tops 'Most likely to fail' poll at San Francisco AI Summit
Once positioned to be one of the most promising startups in the AI space, Perplexity AI emerged as the top pick among attendees as the startup most likely to falter.
While Perplexity took the first spot, OpenAI came in at a close second place, indicating techies' growing anxiety over the 'AI bubble' theory.
The poll indicated concerns over Perplexity's $20 billion valuation, competition from Google and OpenAI, scattered product launches like the Comet browser, and ethical issues, including unauthorised data scraping leading to a Reddit lawsuit.
Social media floods after poll indicates flop show for Perplexity
While critics on X pointed to its cash-burning model and lack of moat, defenders lauded CEO Aravind Srinivas's vision and user traction amid shifting AI market dynamics.
🚨 Perplexity was voted the startup most likely to flop as experts warn of an AI bubble pic.twitter.com/Njz87UZIx1
— Realtime Updates (@dewendrap04) November 16, 2025
Perplexity is so, so over. Cringe marketing campaign. Mogged by ChatGPT Search and Atlas. They should just pivot or close the company down and return money to investors.
— Zephyr (@zephyr_z9) November 16, 2025
The wild thing about Perplexity isn’t just that an AI crowd voted it “most likely to flop”. It’s that you can almost reverse-engineer the company by watching the PR cycles instead of the product cycles.
— Sayeed Afzal (@sayeedafzalkhan) November 16, 2025
Perplexity launches “AI search that will replace Google”. Massive hype,… pic.twitter.com/dxIsOOYFNI
For Perplexity AI, one of the biggest challenges is the whirlwind fundraising. The valuation jumped from $14 billion to $50 billion, fueling fears of the 'AI bubble' akin to the dot-com era.
Investors at the conference shared that it is unlikely that Perplexity will beat Google in the future. They also showed a thumbs down for its flashy product launches and free perks as signs of overreach rather than strengthening its base.
Perplexity's spokesman, Jesse Dwyer, said that the gathering felt more like a "judgmental valley conference" than a serious forum.
Aravind Srinivas-led Perplexity recently announced the commercial availability of its Comet browser free of cost to gain wider adoption. It even signed a deal with Snapchat to integrate its AI engine beginning in early 2026.