Archive · 10 Dec 2025
Harvard Study Reveals AI Agents Focus on Cognitive Work
A new study by Harvard University and Perplexity found that AI agents, which are like smart digital helpers, are mostly used for thinking tasks like learning and work, not just simple chores.
Over half of the tasks these AI agents do are about helping people be more productive or learn new things.
The study looked at millions of interactions and found that people who start using AI for simple things often end up using them for more important tasks.
Different people use these AI agents in different ways, like finance professionals using them for work and students using them for studying.
This shows that AI agents are becoming more important in how we work and learn.
Over 57% of AI agent activity in Perplexity’s Comet browser is focused on cognitive work, such as productivity and learning tasks.
36% of the most common actions carried out by Perplexity’s AI browser agent were productivity and workflow tasks, while 21% were learning and research tasks.
Productivity and workflow-related tasks had the highest retention rates, indicating long-term user engagement.
Six core occupations drove 70% of all agent activity, with digital technologists leading in volume and fields like Marketing and Management showing high 'stickiness'.
Users often start with simple tasks like movie recommendations and gradually shift to more intensive productivity tasks.
- Who
- Harvard University researchers in partnership with Perplexity
- What
- A study on the usage of AI agents, revealing that 57% of their activity is focused on cognitive work
- When
- Tuesday, December 9
- Where
- Not specified, but the study analyzed data from Perplexity’s Comet browser
- Why
- To understand how people are using AI agents and what tasks they are delegating to them
- Study Conducted By
- Harvard University researchers in partnership with Perplexity
- Date Released
- Tuesday, December 9
- Percentage of Cognitive Work
- 57%
- Productivity and Workflow Tasks
- 36%
- Learning and Research Tasks
- 21%
- Highest Retention Rates
- Productivity and workflow-related tasks
- Core Occupations Driving Agent Activity
- Digital technologists, Marketing, Sales, Management, Entrepreneurship
- Finance Professionals' Queries
- 47% related to productivity tasks
- Students' Queries
- 43% related to learning and research tasks