HP Pre-loads AI App on New ZBook Ultra G3a Workstation

Perplexity announced on September 15, 2026 that HP will pre-load the Perplexity Windows app on HP devices, starting with the new HP ZBook Ultra G3a mobile workstation and placing the app directly in the Windows taskbar.

The ZBook Ultra G3a is the first device in the rollout, and Perplexity described it as a mobile workstation built for advanced AI workloads. According to the announcement, the machine uses AMD’s Ryzen AI Max PRO 400-series processors and will be offered in configurations built for demanding AI and graphics workloads, providing the local compute foundation needed to run AI workflows directly on the device. Portable Computer availability on HP hardware depends on the device configuration.

AI Across Microsoft 365 and Connected Apps

Perplexity said the pre-loaded app gives HP customers accurate, sourced AI research and insights and, with Perplexity Computer, a way to complete complex work across files, Microsoft 365, connected apps, and the web. HP device owners can also use Computer in Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook, as well as in Microsoft Teams.

Personal Computer for Windows extends those capabilities to the local HP machine. Perplexity said Computer can retrieve a file from the Downloads folder, refresh a local spreadsheet with current information from the web, edit a Word document, or build a PowerPoint presentation, working across files and folders on the PC, connected apps, and the web. The company said Computer also connects to more than 400 other apps and data sources, including Snowflake, Salesforce, HubSpot, and Revit, so HP customers can combine local files with the information systems their organizations already use. Computer orchestrates more than 15 models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and other AI labs, assigning the model it judges best suited to each part of a task, Perplexity said.

Portable Computer on Supported HP Devices

Beyond orchestrating cloud models, the pre-loaded app lets HP customers run sensitive work fully locally with Portable Computer by downloading a local model with one click, Perplexity said. Supported by the ZBook Ultra G3a’s local AI capabilities, users can analyze data, synthesize files, and run complex workflows on their own hardware without sending tasks to the cloud. The company said fully local work keeps private data on the PC and does not consume cloud credits, and that on-device responses are often faster and more private and can be returned without an internet connection.

When a task needs more advanced research and reasoning, users can authorize Portable to escalate it to the cloud while keeping sensitive information local. Perplexity said Portable checks whether a task would send personal or sensitive data to the cloud and warns the user before anything is shared.

Perplexity’s Portable Computer product page states that the software runs the agent harness, orchestrator, planner, and tool router locally on supported Windows or Linux PCs, and that PPLX 27B is the available local model on Windows RTX PCs, with NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning listed as coming soon. The page describes scheduled recurring tasks, sandboxed code and tool execution, and Gmail, Outlook, Slack, and GitHub connectors working through the local orchestrator, and it states that work handled by local models carries no per-token charge. When a step needs the web or frontier reasoning, the orchestrator asks for approval before routing that step to a cloud model, according to the page. Portable Computer is available for Pro and Max subscribers.

The HP pre-load follows a related Perplexity release dated September 14, 2026, when the company brought Portable Computer to Windows PCs, extending it from its August 2026 debut on NVIDIA DGX Spark to machines with supported NVIDIA GeForce RTX and RTX PRO GPUs. That Windows release is available to Pro and Max subscribers on individual and enterprise plans through the existing Perplexity app for Windows, and on-device inference requires an NVIDIA GeForce RTX or RTX PRO GPU with at least 24GB of VRAM.

Autodesk Revit Integration and Availability

Perplexity said it worked with HP and Autodesk to connect Autodesk Revit, building information modeling software used for designing, documenting, and coordinating buildings with a model-based approach, to Portable Computer through a dedicated integration layer. On supported HP Windows PCs, Portable can be configured to connect to Revit through Autodesk’s Revit 2027 MCP server, a Tech Preview offered as a separate add-on that requires access to Revit 2027.

With the connection configured, users can ask questions about an open Revit model in everyday language, such as the number of doors on the first floor, which doors carry a particular fire rating, or where in the building those doors appear, Perplexity said. Computer can find the relevant information, show matching items in Revit, and export views, PDFs, and schedules for reports or follow-up tasks such as drafting a request for information. The Revit MCP Server Tech Preview used in this configuration is read-only and does not modify the Revit model.

Autodesk’s own support documentation, dated April 20, 2026, describes the Revit 2027 MCP Server Read-Tools Technical Preview as letting MCP-capable AI tools connect with Revit so users can query the model, get answers to questions, and automate routine tasks, and it notes that an AI model able to connect to the MCP server is required.

For Windows users whose PCs do not include Perplexity, the app is available as a download from the Microsoft Store, and Personal Computer for Windows is available to Pro, Max, and Enterprise subscribers on Windows 10 and Windows 11. Perplexity said additional HP Windows devices with the pre-loaded app will ship in the coming months.