Understanding is what powers Algolia's search and discovery technology. Understanding is knowing what we mean when we use words like sweater or pullover. It’s discovering what inspires and delights your customers. It’s about listening to customers and making a connection so that they feel heard through their personalized way of communicating when they ask, search, or explore.
Business leaders and developers know that search is no longer an afterthought. It is a critical resource and a key differentiator that drives competitiveness, the customer journey, and conversions.
Customer expectations are high. Our knowledge of people and technology, and the needs of companies, their developers, and ultimately their end users channel how we build our search solutions.
We help enterprises maximize the power of their customer-facing online assets by delivering an AI search and discovery API that is unique in its ease of use, speed, and scalability.
Our advanced machine learning and natural language processing capabilities are an integral, keystone feature of Algolia's AI Search API. It enables us to use data and harness client- and end-user needs to deliver solutions that are relevant and meaningful — shaping the online experience by first understanding what users want and then delivering outcomes they expect. Algolia's technology provides a powerful, cost-effective, and versatile search and discovery solution to developers, merchandisers, and online businesses operating across the world.
Algolia's vision is to help users find what they are looking for instantly and easily. We understand people and search. Our AI search and discovery solutions improve the online experience for businesses, developers, and the customers they serve.
What does it mean for end users and developers?
According to Forrester Research, 43% of people on retail websites are likely to go straight to the search bar when they visit an online store. As a consequence, lackluster search results that approximate user wants no longer make the grade.
Customers expect a unique and personalized online experience each time they visit. To elicit a significant response, every online touchpoint has to be tailored to their wants and likes. The goal is to create meaningful connections that convert visitors into buyers and buyers into loyal customers.
Algolia Search uses AI to enable more relevant search results that are adjusted in real time based on factors such as browsing history, the informational intent associated with search terms, and high-performing content from similar searches.
Unlike simply matching keywords, our smart search technology analyzes search behavior to understand the user's desires, showing them exactly what they have in mind.
It gets at the essence of a user's search intentions by offering up the most relevant suggestions for a web or product page. It uses AI to understand users to not only meet their needs but also exceed their expectations.
For developers looking to implement Algolia Search, our API offers a new level of access to versatile and powerful AI-supported resources.
We are democratizing AI-powered search by delivering cost-effective solutions at price points that are attractive to businesses across a range of industries.
We also offer developers access to a suite of search and discovery features and tools that employ a building block interface that is faster to implement across a range of omnichannel sites and applications. As a result, going to market is cheaper.
Our API delivers an AI that understands into the hands of merchandising teams, data scientists, and the businesses they work with, as well as developers and their clients.
How does it work?
Online retail has seen significant changes in customer expectations. Major web retailers have set the bar high, delivering search and discovery capabilities that customers now expect whenever or wherever they browse and shop online.
Additionally, end-user queries are now not only more complex but also more nuanced. Helping users find a product or a valuable piece of information requires more capable AI-driven solutions. Consumers expect to be understood and to see precise results, delivered quickly.
Algolia Search brings AI-based search to online businesses no matter their size. Our AI Search technology uses a neural hashing algorithm to compress huge vectors into smaller binary files, enabling us to deliver powerful results at 1/10th the cost. Our approach solves the dilemma of storing huge quantities of data and overcomes the problem of slower speeds associated with other AI search solutions.
Our technology combines keyword search with AI semantic search at an industrial scale, enabling our customers to build a composable search and discovery experience that provides comprehensive search solutions. It also improves the accuracy and quality of search and eliminates much of the manual work needed to optimize search results.
Our API's powerful natural language processing (NLP) capability, a form of machine learning, means that our AI solution is capable of accurately understanding users based on the way they use language in real life. It takes into account synonyms and sometimes ambiguous terms that pepper the way people communicate.
Additionally, like other advanced machine learning algorithms, our AI technology is also capable of analyzing language patterns and relationships to understand exactly what people mean. It does this by interpreting the user’s search intent within specific search terms. As a result, improved results boost consumer satisfaction.
Ultimately, the ability to understand user needs drives the user journey, the search experience, and conversions. The better that merchandising teams, developers, and businesses get at delivering AI search that understands user intent, the better the outcomes for businesses and the customers they serve.
Products and features that understand
Algolia Search understands customer needs and wants through a host of products and features that work together to generate meaningful customer journeys.
With analytics generated from our AI Search, AI Browse, and
AI recommendations, businesses have access to rich data that draws from shopper interactions, purchase history, browsing habits, and other touch points.
This data not only helps inform marketing and merchandising decisions, it is also a critical element for improving personalization and the customer experience.
Business signals and customized curation
For developers, merchandisers, and business leaders, the rich data generated by our search technology delivers valuable business signals that allow you to better understand your product, service, and end-user or customer behaviors.
From product profitability to inventory levels, Algolia allows you to accurately assess interactions, providing event information that outlines details like the name, type, and time of interactions, as well as user identity.
Harnessing the power of tools like our Merchandising Studio, teams can use rich data to guide the user journey, carefully curating campaigns and influencing rankings.
Our API offers these features:
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Quick to market: Content can be indexed in minutes and can be populated using partner integrations such as Shopify, Commercetools, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Adobe Commerce, or BigCommerce.
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Easily customizable: With an extensive library of open-source front-end components, including filters, sorting, pagination, and maps, it is easy to create custom user interfaces.
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Makes ranking control easy: Our Dynamic Re-ranking feature makes it easy to optimize ranking and fine-tune results directly in the dashboard.
Foundational technology
Serving as a one-stop shop for AI-based search, our core products and features are uniquely designed to answer the needs of online businesses and services operating in a range of different sectors.
- B2C ecommerce
- B2B ecommerce
- Marketplaces
- Media
- SAAS
Ease of use, speed and scale
Our API enables enterprises and developers. It brings together a host of AI-supported features that help shape and understand the end-user experience. It helps teams better understand their customers to deliver meaningful outcomes and solutions that makes users feel that they are being understood.
In addition to AI Search, Algolia offers a host of foundational products and features that enable understanding. These include:
- Query Categorization: Uses a machine learning model to align a query to the optimal category from your index, the feature makes it easier for customers to search, discover, and find what they are looking for. Its predictive capabilities also deliver a host of data points to better understand user intent and behavior delivering meaningful search results.
- Dynamic Re-ranking: Working alongside Custom Ranking, Algolia Rules, and the Personalization feature, Dynamic
Re-ranking automatically analyzes user actions to optimize performant content for relevance and to boost ROI.
- AI Personalization: The ability to customize the user experience means that online journeys can be tailored to meet the needs of individual users. An understanding of user needs is reflected through search, browsing, recommendations, and a host of other critical touchpoints.
- AI Synonyms: Helping users get search results that they want, the feature boosts the relevance of a keyword search by applying AI algorithms to predict synonyms based on user queries. The feature also surfaces new synonyms over time to better understand user needs and shape business and merchandising strategy moving forward.
Analytics and actionable insights
Understanding customer behavior is all about data. Our ability to understand user intention and choice comes from what we already know about customer behavior and browsing history. That is why analytics are such a crucial element in shaping AI search as well as driving merchandising decisions and business strategy.
Algolia Analytics uses software to interpret data from various sources like websites, mobile apps, and retail stores. The information can include insights into customer journeys, inventory status, supply chains, and the financial health of the company.
For customers and other end users, analytics improve the overall search experience by ensuring the quality of search results, delivering the results customers are looking for sooner.
It also helps merchandising teams better understand their customer by having access to data that reveals popular search terms and products, reducing poor user experiences like dead ends that increase bounce rates.
Actionable insights
Having access to data is great, but knowing what to do with it is the key to improving overall performance. With a range of user-friendly dashboards, Algolia makes it easy for teams to access the data that generate actionable insights.
Through a combination of predictive analytics that allow businesses to project demand and prescriptive analytics that help suggest positive next steps, Algolia offers intelligent data-driven solutions.
The technology makes it much easier to:
- Discover popular searches and transform low-performing results
- Gain visibility to data and make real-time changes
- Improve search relevance with data on click positions and how they are distributed
- Better manage inventory
- Raise customer satisfaction levels
By providing a lens to understand available data and offering easy-to-use ways to act on insights, Algolia offers businesses and developers powerful tools that improve conversion rates and ROI.
Use cases
We often associate AI search with retail ecommerce — it is a sector where an understanding of AI technology can have a significant positive impact on both consumers and the businesses that serve their needs.
But AI search can improve processes and user experiences across a range of different industries and use cases.
Here are some examples:
Supporting customer service agents
Algolia AI can solve for overworked customer service staff by applying AI Search to help answer customer queries before they require the support of a human agent. Our NLP-capable AI can understand voice- or text-initiated queries. It can then apply our powerful search technology to recall the right answer. If customers require additional help they can then be transferred to a human agent.
Improving site and app search
A hiking site that offers users curated trail maps, photos, reviews, and search filters applied Algolia's Search to make it easier for locals and those further afield to benefit from the valuable information.
To upgrade the capability of their website and app, they used Algolia Search to incorporate geo-search and intelligent search functionality. The improved application and website accurately interprets a user’s situation to deliver hiking and trail options that are in the vicinity.
Understanding users and their intentions is at the heart of a meaningful AI search experience. Algolia's powerful search and discovery solutions are capable of exceeding user expectations by helping businesses and developers understand their users and show them what they need.
Algolia vs. the competition
Meeting customer and business expectations is the goal of any AI search technology, but we are confident that our API product's ease of use, speed, and scalability set us apart from the competition.
Building an AI search solution from scratch
It is true that open-source solutions are available. But adding the software to your stack is just the start. A DIY AI search solution also means investing in the data scientists and AI expertise that you need to build the models that power your specific business needs - a potentially complex and expensive task.
Given the speed of developments in the sector, this can become a significant long-term investment involving maintenance and development teams to keep systems optimized and running smoothly.
Other ecommerce vendors
Many providers who focus primarily on ecommerce applications may say that their search is AI driven but in many instances these claims are half-baked. Because implementing full AI capability is expensive and complicated, they are typically using the technology up front as an add-on for reranking.
This ends up generating a lackluster user search experience because the underlying data hasn't been AI optimized. As a consequence, search results are not up to par and conversion rates suffer.
Conclusion
By taking a rich array of signals from our users, their customers, and their clients, Algolia has led fast, scalable, and easy AI-driven search solutions for online customer- and client-facing businesses across the world.
By transforming and democratizing the online search experience, businesses and developers are able to better understand their users. At the same time, we help customers feel like they are being heard and that their personalized way of communicating makes sense when they ask, search, or explore.
We help businesses grow and shape customer journeys, showing users what they need with AI search that understands.
Ultimately, the facts speak for themselves:
- Algolia is the No.1 hosted search engine globally
- We process over 1.7+ trillion searches every year
- Over 500,000 developers around the world use our product
- We deliver 382% ROI according to Forrester Research
- We’re a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Search and Product Discovery
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