How You Can Use Perplexity Without Oversharing Your Business Data

AI tools like Perplexity are becoming popular with small business owners because they save time. You can ask questions, explore ideas, and get quick explanations without digging through dozens of browser tabs.

But using Perplexity for routine tasks can accidentally expose customer emails, payroll spreadsheets, or early product drafts — redact or anonymize these before submitting.

Below are five practical ways you can use Perplexity to support your business while keeping sensitive information where it belongs.

5 use cases with prompts to help your business

1. Draft customer replies without exposing customer data

If you run a small business, you probably find yourself answering the same questions again and again: how long delivery takes, what’s included in a service, or how billing works. This is where Perplexity can be helpful, by helping you write clear, reusable answers that you can adapt and use whenever those questions come up.

Safe prompts to try

General reply template:
“Write a professional yet friendly response explaining delivery times for an online service. Keep it clear and reassuring.”

Tone variation:
“Please rewrite this into a more concise format for time-pressed customers.”

FAQ-style answer:
“Write a short FAQ answer explaining what’s included in a standard service package for a small business.”

Billing explanation:
“Explain how monthly billing works for a service-based business, in simple, customer-friendly language.”

Protect your business data

Avoid pasting real customer emails, names, order numbers, screenshots, or anything that identifies a specific client. If a message feels personal, emotional, or sensitive, summarize the situation instead of copying it word for word.

2. Explore your market and competitors using public information only

Market research is one of the most common reasons small business owners turn to Perplexity. It’s fast, it pulls together information from multiple sources, and it helps you understand what’s happening in your industry without spending hours searching on your own.

Safe prompts to try

Instead of sharing anything internal, try prompts like these:

“What trends are shaping the accounting services market in 2025?”

“What do customers often complain about when choosing a marketing agency?”

“What features do small businesses usually look for when comparing invoicing tools?”

“How are competitors in [your industry] positioning themselves publicly on their websites?”

These kinds of questions rely only on public information and help you build a clearer picture of your market without revealing anything about your own plans.

Protect your business data

Do not upload internal strategy documents, pricing models, pitch decks, or partnership notes. Use public sources only. Use it to understand the landscape around you, not to expose what makes your business different behind the scenes.

3. Analyze data without uploading sensitive files

It’s tempting to upload a spreadsheet and ask, “What do you see here?” But in a small business, data is rarely anonymous. Even a few rows can reveal client relationships, contracts, or revenue patterns. You can still use Perplexity to think through data in a safer way that doesn’t involve sharing the data itself.

Safe prompts to try

“What trends should a small business look for in monthly sales data?”

Which three KPIs should a service business with recurring clients track first (e.g., churn rate, ARPA, retention cohorts)?

Which simple analyses (month-over-month percent change, 12‑month rolling average) reveal seasonal revenue dips?

“What metrics help identify when customer churn is becoming a problem?”

These prompts help you frame your analysis and interpret your own numbers locally, without sending them anywhere else.

Protect your business data

Avoid uploading real sales data, customer lists, invoices, or financial records. If you need help interpreting numbers, describe the structure or scenario in general terms, or work with anonymized examples that don’t point back to real clients or transactions.

4. Generate ideas for content, offers, and campaigns

Perplexity can be a helpful thinking partner when you’re planning what to promote next, what content to create, or how to better match customer expectations. Used this way, it helps you explore ideas and spot patterns before you invest time and money into a campaign.

Safe prompts to try

“What questions do customers usually ask before buying products online in the home and lifestyle category?”

“What are common reasons shoppers abandon their carts in small e-commerce stores?”

“Give me content ideas for an e-commerce brand selling [type of product], focused on trust and product transparency.”

“What seasonal buying patterns should a small e-commerce business prepare for in Q4?”

“What types of promotions tend to work best for first-time buyers in online stores?”

Protect your business data

Do not include: unpublished campaigns, discount strategies, supplier information, detailed launch plans. Use AI to explore ideas and customer perspectives, then shape the final messaging, offers, and decisions yourself.

Perplexity works best as a brainstorming tool, not as a replacement for your brand voice or business judgment.

5. Draft and summarize documents carefully

When you're short on time, use Perplexity to quickly summarize complex documents so you can identify structure and key points.

Safe prompts to try

Instead of uploading real documents, try prompts like these:

“Explain the main parts of a typical service agreement in simple terms.”

“What clauses should I pay close attention to in a freelance contract?”

“Summarize the key points that usually matter most in a standard service agreement.”

“Rewrite a formal contract description into plain English, focusing on responsibilities and deadlines.”

Protect your business data

Never upload signed contracts, NDAs, client agreements, or documents containing personal or financial details. Use placeholders if you need examples, and remember that AI-generated drafts and summaries are starting points, not legal advice.

If something carries legal or financial risk, it still needs proper human review.

How to use AI tools safely

You can also run the same prompts through other AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and compare the responses. Each tool may phrase things differently or highlight other angles, which can be useful when you’re exploring ideas or trying to understand a topic from more than one perspective.

Regardless of the tool, the basic principle stays the same: don’t overshare your business data.

To protect your business beyond good habits and careful prompting, having proper security in place matters too. Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security helps protect your devices, accounts, and data against online threats such as phishing, malware, account takeovers, data breaches, and scams, so you can use AI tools with more confidence, without putting your business at unnecessary risk.

If you want to try it, there’s a free trial for 30 days.