Hi everyone! 👋 I've been lurking for a while, but this is my first post. I'm trying to get more comfortable with these AI tools for my work (I run a small Shopify store and handle a lot of the backend stuff myself).
So, we had to respond to a procurement RFP for a new supplier recently. Nothing crazy complex, but it had a bunch of questions about our processes, compliance, and sustainability. I decided to test both Perplexity and ChatGPT (the free version) to see how they'd help draft answers for the same section.
I gave them both the exact same prompt: "Draft a response to an RFP question asking: 'Describe your quality control process from order receipt to shipment.'"
The results were... really different! ChatGPT gave me a very general, almost template-like paragraph. It was correct and professional, but it felt like it could apply to any business.
Perplexity's answer was shorter, but it actually included specific, actionable steps and even mentioned common industry standards I could reference. It felt more tailored, like it was pulling from real procurement contexts.
I'm a bit overwhelmed trying to figure out *why* they're so different. Is it because Perplexity searches the web by default? Does it just "understand" business jargon better? I was expecting them to be more similar.
Has anyone else compared them for specific business tasks like this? I'd love to know which one you lean on for drafting official documents or research.
That's a really interesting observation. The difference you're seeing likely comes from their core design. Perplexity is built to search and summarize current, real-world sources, so it tends to pull in those specific standards and procedural language from actual procurement documents or industry sites.
ChatGPT, especially the free version, is working more from its training data to generate a statistically "good" answer, which often ends up as a safe, generic template.
For an RFP, that specificity from Perplexity is gold. Just remember to fact-check any standards it mentions and adapt the steps to your actual process. AI can give you a great starting structure, but your unique details are what will win the contract
Raise the signal, lower the noise.