Comprendre les véritables possibilités des solutions de recherche avec IA sur un marché encombré

CTOs or CIOs assessing search solutions realize that search is no longer simply table stakes but a game changer for their organization. Search is the differentiator and leaders are on the line to deliver; however, search must evolve to do more with AI faster and cheaper.

End-to-end AI application is the cornerstone of any search and discovery platform, and it’s critical for a truly optimized AI search platform to provide dynamic ranking and personalization. To this end, AI needs to be applied to all three pillars of search: query understanding, retrieval, and ranking. While many vendors may claim that they have end-to-end AI in their solution, that may not be the case in reality. It is becoming increasingly important for CIO/CTOs to demand critical capabilities that they need in a solution that truly makes it not just end-to-end AI, but also best-in-class. Presenting Algolia NeuralSearch: a solution that checks these boxes. Now there is a way to combine keyword search and AI vector search with blazing performance, at an industrial scale — all at a very competitive price point that not many others can match.
 

Problem

Customers expect your website to deliver a digital experience that’s on par with every leading consumer site and application — they expect your website to understand or even anticipate their intentions.

Until recently, technology hadn’t existed that allowed ecommerce businesses of all sizes to strike a balance between precise results and recall (or a more comprehensive selection of those results) in order to meet customer expectations. Vector search technology has existed since 2013, and could have solved the problem by itself. However, vectors create a new problem as they are computationally expensive to both process and to store.

Solution

Recent advancements in AI and natural language understanding (NLU) have brought these technologies into the mainstream. NLU can finally deliver on its promise because of progress in underlying technology involving transformers, vectors, and a
host of other developments. 

These technologies have gone beyond experimentation to AI language understanding for search. Now ecommerce businesses have choices to make on technologies that could solve their most persistent problems. For example, a groundbreaking advancement from Algolia has solved the vector problem by compressing huge vectors into binary code to deliver equivalent results at 1/10th the cost. Algolia NeuralSearch reduces vector size by converting vectors into hashes, solving the problems of storing large quantities of data and slower speed associated with other AI search solutions at a price point that is very attractive for online businesses across industries.

Make sure you’re looking for the right vendor capabilities when looking for an AI search solution.

The AI Search Market Landscape

In this report, we’ll look at vendors that you’ll encounter as you explore various AI search platforms and how each of these vendor capabilities match up to Algolia NeuralSearch - our new end-to-end AI search and discovery solution:

Ecommerce Vendors

With a focus primarily on ecommerce applications, these vendors may apply a vector-based search to minimize zero results pages. But this capability is expensive and engaged sparingly: only for null results, slowing the experience. These providers might be using some AI, but typically not upfront for retrieval, e.g., they have an AI add-on for reranking. AI on retrieval matters because if you use AI only to rank results, the reranking is suboptimal — the initial results you are ranking were not AI-optimized. This lack of capability can be significant to conversions and customer satisfaction.

Build with Open Source

Acknowledging that open source solutions, or bricks, have traditionally served a purpose, the arrival of AI for search has created new challenges. AI has become yet another thing to add to your open source stack. This makes DIY search even more complex, requiring you to invest in data scientists to build models that fit your business needs. This increasing complexity also carries through from the build stage to maintenance, requiring a large dev team to constantly tinker with your stack to keep it functioning optimally.

Now there is a way to combine keyword search with AI vector search with blazing performance, at an industrial scale — all at a very economical price point that not many others can match.

With an API-first approach since inception, Algolia enables customers to build a composable search and discovery with configurable vector and keyword search. The end-to-end AI search capabilities breakdown that follows will help you navigate this new frontier and ask the right questions. To compete in the new AI-tech led world, keep the following considerations top of mind as you examine your options:

• Is your choice the most effective, comprehensive search solution at scale?
• Does your preferred solution save developer time during deployment and maintenance?
• Can you dramatically improve site metrics without deploying engineering?
• Does it give your business team the freedom of action necessary for an optimal customer experience with minimal dev effort?

What’s to gain from getting AI search right

Your bottom line benefits when search is meeting shopper and business expectations. Solving the null results problem can secure potentially greater revenue. To this end, Algolia retrieves AI-optimized results from keyword and vector processing in parallel and at lightning speed. Monitor and consider these KPIs as you continue to assess platforms and capabilities, and get your search vendor to prove these values:

Higher Relevancy

• Drive to zero null results
• Reduced search abandonment
• Improved average click position

Better Experience

• Enhanced click-through rate (CTR)
• Higher average order value (AOV)
• Boosted revenue conversion rate

As you progress on your AI search platform discoveries, you can gain more insight from these additional resources:

• Get the rundown on core features of Algolia NeuralSearch 

• Learn about all things AI search from Algolia experts 

• Watch leading voices give their take on the AI landscape 

• Hear why this end-to-end AI search and discovery solution is so game changing straight from Algolia CEO Bernadette Nixon