How It Can Be Used in Humanitarian Work

Perplexity can provide quick summaries of recent research on displacement, community health, or protection, showing sources, which helps research and MEAL teams prepare evidence-based notes. It supports advocacy and decision-making reports by providing scientific evidence on critical topics such as food security, mental health, and reconstruction. It can also train staff to understand research trends, build scientific backgrounds for policy reports, and design evidence-based interventions. Research Mode enables in-depth comparison of studies, extraction of conclusions, and mapping of evidence, with the ability to upload local files for analysis.

Advantages

Perplexity offers intelligent search with sourced answers and Research Mode for multi-step analysis. Users can upload documents for internal analysis and use advanced AI models like GPT‑4 or Claude (in paid plans), increasing summary and inference quality. It saves significant time, allowing teams to focus on analysis rather than reading everything manually.

Disadvantages

The free version is limited and does not allow deep research or advanced models, while Pro may have daily limits or capped queries. Results depend on web-available information, so some academic research not online may be missing.

What you'll lose if you don't use the tool

Without Perplexity AI, you lose fast, focused, source-backed research and in-depth topic analysis. You would rely on traditional search engines or manual reading of numerous papers, which is slower and more prone to gaps or errors.

Montly Cost

Perplexity Pro costs approximately $20 per month per user, with Enterprise plans available for organizations depending on needs.

Alternative tool