Your competitive advantage across sales, marketing, and AI — built for operators who move fast and think ahead.

🧰This Week’s Tool I’m Testing: Perplexity Labs

An AI Agent Platform That’s Redefining Lead Generation and Sales Ops

What it is: Perplexity Labs orchestrates multiple specialized AI agents to autonomously complete complex sales and marketing tasks end-to-end—delivering fully built lead-gen dashboards, competitor analyses, outreach campaigns, and even functioning web applications from a single prompt.

Why it’s worth trying: Unlike traditional GPT tools that provide just information or recommendations, Perplexity Labs delivers completed business assets—actionable dashboards, verified lead lists with executive contacts, strategic outreach campaigns, and interactive competitive analyses—saving teams weeks of manual research in minutes.

How it stacks up:

• vs. ChatGPT / Claude / LLMs →
  Perplexity Labs doesn't stop at giving answers—it gathers data, verifies contacts, creates visual dashboards, and generates ready-to-use outreach materials.

• vs. Traditional Lead Gen Companies →
  No expensive, slow manual research—Perplexity Labs autonomously compiles verified data in real-time, significantly faster and at a fraction of the cost.

• vs. Single-Agent AI Tools →
  Instead of relying on one model prone to errors and hallucinations, Perplexity uses multiple specialized AI agents, each expert in specific tasks, dramatically improving accuracy and reliability.

• vs. Custom-built AI Solutions →
  Prebuilt, plug-and-play architecture that integrates directly into your existing CRM, email, and outreach tools without costly development.

Business impact:

• Up to 90% reduction in time spent compiling and verifying sales leads

• Instant creation of data-rich, fully interactive competitive dashboards

• Massive cost savings vs. manual research or outsourced lead-gen agencies

Cost & Plan: Requires a Perplexity Pro subscription ($20/month), providing unlimited access to all Labs features.

First step:
Pick a target industry, funding stage, or prospecting criteria. Prompt Perplexity Labs with your exact requirement, and watch as it autonomously builds your actionable sales intelligence dashboard. Don’t worry, I give you a step-by-step guide on how to do this below.

Triple Threat Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

👉 Try Perplexity Labs

🚀 Fascinating Reads/Case Studies: MIT’s “Your Brain on ChatGPT” Study

Why Overusing AI May Be Sabotaging Your Team’s Competitive Edge

MIT's groundbreaking research reveals startling, often overlooked cognitive consequences of heavy AI usage. Here’s what strategic operators need to know:

Three Powerful Insights:

1. Your Brain Adjusts Quickly to AI Dependence:
   When AI does the heavy lifting, your brain’s "executive functions" (strategic decision-making, complex problem-solving) drastically decline—within days, not months. Continuous reliance creates lasting cognitive deficits, impairing your team's core abilities to innovate and adapt.

2. You’re Unknowingly Limiting Skill Growth:
   MIT found that cognitive outsourcing prevents essential skill reinforcement. Critical thinking, nuanced judgment, and memory significantly weaken, leaving your team under-equipped to handle unexpected business challenges or to deliver nuanced client interactions.

3. Hidden Cost of Speed & Scale:
   Initially, AI appears beneficial—rapid output, immediate efficiency—but the long-term effect, MIT reveals, is a stark erosion of competitive skills. Companies strategically balancing human-led workflows with AI support significantly outperform purely AI-driven competitors in creativity, adaptability, and client trust.

Operator-level action item:
Conduct an immediate workflow audit—identify tasks heavily AI-dependent. Implement a mandatory "Human-First" protocol where AI refines rather than replaces. This will preserve essential strategic thinking, skill reinforcement, and ensure your team remains competitive long-term.

👉 Dive deeper into MIT’s full research

🤖 Alex’s Build of the Week: The Sales Intelligence Dashboard (Built with Perplexity Labs)

(This week’s build is hands-on — and honestly, one of the most useful experiments I’ve done all year. Powered by Perplexity Labs, this dashboard replaces clunky lead-gen workflows with clean, automated, ready-to-go sales intel.)

After testing Perplexity Labs across a range of client projects, this one stood out. I used it to build a fully personalized Sales Intelligence Dashboard for a client — and the value was instant. It pulled verified leads, competitor insights, and outreach copy in under 10 minutes. Zero scraping. Zero freelancers. Zero messy CSV cleanup.

(Who it’s for:
Consultants, freelancers, fractional heads of growth, or anyone supporting clients with lead gen, GTM strategy, or outbound activation.

What it does:
You give it your client’s target market. Labs returns:

• A custom dashboard of top-fit companies

• Verified CEO/CMO contact info

• Recent news, hiring signals, and funding activity

• A competitive snapshot (features, pricing, positioning)

• Personalized cold outreach copy — ready to test

Why it’s a game changer:

• Saves 5+ hours per project — I used to spend half a day on LinkedIn, Crunchbase, and spreadsheets. Now it’s 15 minutes max.

• Cuts costs dramatically — No more $300–$500/month tools or outsourced VA cleanup. This $20/month tool does it all.

• Clients love it — You hand them a dashboard that’s instantly actionable. They think you’ve got a secret weapon (and you kind of do).

• Repeatable & scalable — I now use this format across multiple clients and niches. One prompt, different filters — new value every time.

How to build it (Step-by-Step):

1. Get Perplexity Pro
   Sign up for Perplexity Pro ($20/month). Labs is included with your plan.

2. Enter Labs Mode
   Click the “Labs” tab (not Search or Deep Research). This is where the multi-agent magic happens.

3. Use this prompt ( edit as needed):

   Create a Sales Intelligence Dashboard for [INSERT INDUSTRY] companies in the U.S. with annual revenue between [INSERT RANGE] and headcount between [INSERT EMPLOYEE RANGE].

   Include:

   • Verified contact details (name, title, email, LinkedIn) for key decision-makers like [INSERT JOB TITLES, e.g. CEO, CMO, VP of Product]

   • Recent company news, funding activity, or hiring trends

   • A competitor matrix comparing 5–10 similar companies on features, pricing, and positioning

   • 3 personalized cold outreach email templates tailored to selling [INSERT COMPANY’S PRODUCT/SERVICE] to this segment

   • Exportable results (CSV or visual dashboard) for CRM integration and campaign activation.

4. Let it run
   In 10 minutes, you’ll get a full dashboard — organized, verified, and ready to hand off.

5. Export & Deliver
   Download the output and present it to your client. Or plug it into their CRM and get your marketing and sales teams moving.

This build alone has saved me hours per engagement and made my work feel 5x more valuable to clients. If you touch any part of GTM strategy or execution — this should be a “go-to” in your toolbox, not to mention it can be a HUGE competitive advantage.