ChatGPT vs Perplexity AI - who can analyse your research better?

This morning I came across the image below in one of my social media feeds about how ChatGPT can help analyse research data. ChatGPT is one of the tools I use regularly, but it’s usually not my first choice. Inspired by the image, I decided to explore whether Perplexity AI could perform similar tasks - and perhaps even offer unique advantages.

Visualisation of how ChatGTP can help analyse research data

In today’s fast-paced world, efficiently analysing research data is critical for businesses, researchers, and professionals alike. Whether you're working with messy datasets, uncovering insights, or preparing reports, Perplexity AI offers a powerful suite of tools to simplify and enhance your workflow. In this post, we’ll explore how Perplexity AI compares to ChatGPT when it comes to cleaning and structuring data, summarising insights, creating visualisations, running statistical analyses, working with interactive tables, and generating comprehensive reports.

1. Cleaning and structuring your data

Yes, Perplexity AI can help.

Perplexity is particularly good at working with structured prompts to suggest ways to clean data, fix inconsistencies, and reformat tables. While it doesn’t clean files directly like a spreadsheet tool would, it provides step-by-step guidance you can follow or use with other tools (like Excel, Python or Google Sheets). For example, you can ask, “How can I remove duplicates and standardise column names in a CSV file?” and it will respond with clear instructions or even suggest code snippets for automation.

This makes it especially useful for users who prefer hands-on control while leveraging AI for expert advice.

2. Exploring and summarising insights

Perplexity is really good at this.

Perplexity AI excels at taking complex research questions and surfacing key insights. You can upload papers, reports or summarised data, then ask it questions in plain English - like, “What are the main takeaways from these survey results?” It responds with concise answers, trends, and patterns, often citing sources if you're working with referenced material.

3. Creating visualisations

Somewhat limited - but it can guide you.

This is where ChatGPT clearly outshines Perplexity. Unlike ChatGPT with advanced plugins or integrations, Perplexity doesn’t directly create graphs or charts. However, it can generate code (e.g., in Python or R) to help you build visualisations in external tools. If you say, “Create a bar chart of product ratings from this table,” it will suggest the code needed, explain how to run it, and even describe what the chart would look like.

This approach works well for users comfortable with external software but may feel limiting for those seeking a fully integrated solution.

4. Running statistical analysis

Very capable - with detailed explanations and examples.

Perplexity AI is great at walking you through statistical concepts and guiding analysis. You can ask for explanations or example code for t-tests, ANOVA, regression models and more. It won't run the analysis for you, but it will help you understand what to do, why it matters, and how to interpret the output, which works great for learners and researchers who want to stay hands-on.

5. Working with interactive tables

Not currently a native feature.

Unlike some advanced ChatGPT workflows (with code interpreters or add-ons), Perplexity doesn’t offer built-in interactive tables. However, it can recommend tools and workflows to turn static data into something dynamic - such as using Google Sheets, Datawrapper or Jupyter notebooks. It’s less about hands-on table manipulation, more about helping you build the right pipeline.

For example: “How can I create an interactive table to filter survey responses?” will prompt suggestions for tools and techniques to achieve your goal.

6. Generating reports

Yes - and it’s very fast.

Perplexity AI is excellent at drafting summaries, reports, and research write-ups based on provided data or uploaded documents. You can request executive summaries, bulleted highlights, or full reports with intros, findings and recommendations. It’s especially useful if you're short on time and need to turn raw insights into polished text quickly.

Final thoughts

While Perplexity AI doesn’t replicate every ChatGPT feature (especially when it comes to dynamic visualisations or interactive tables), it’s a powerful research companion with a knack for speed, accuracy and clarity.

It offers unique strengths that make it a powerful research companion:

• Speed: Quickly synthesises insights from complex datasets.

• Accuracy: Provides clear instructions backed by citations when needed.

• Clarity: Drafts professional reports that save time without sacrificing quality.

• Versatility: Works seamlessly alongside external tools for enhanced functionality.

And if you're tackling a really complex topic, Perplexity’s Deep Research tool is a game-changer - automating multi-source research and delivering well-structured overviews with citations.

This comparison of the support Perplexity AI and ChatGPT can give you for your research tasks serves as a good reminder that no single tool fits every use case perfectly - but combining multiple models can help you achieve your goals more effectively.

If you're curious about how tools like Perplexity AI or ChatGPT can streamline your research or analysis workflow, we’re here to help. Our AI education workshops and consultancy services are designed to guide you - from basic use to advanced research automation. Get in touch to explore what’s possible.