Algolia’s How Search Teams Work: Building Exceptional Search Experiences is the first report of its kind. It gives stakeholders a comprehensive overview of how teams across companies are operationalizing search given today’s challenges. It puts special emphasis on the executive, business, and developer roles that collaborate daily to shape high quality user experiences.

Our report is based on input from 1,245 participants from the Americas, EU, the middle east and Asia-Pacific regions, working for companies of all sizes and across industries.

Data and insights from the report reveal how search teams are evolving to build compelling search and discovery experiences. It uncovers and distills the priorities and work practices of the various roles that collaborate in every organization, whether to buy, build or optimize search.

Budgets, technical considerations, and the need for ROI continue to dominate decision-making. At the same time, AI and new automation capabilities stretch resources, improve internal workflow, and enhance the customer experience.

To thrive in today’s market requires adaptation, innovation, and creativity. The insights that follow can help stakeholders strengthen their data, develop AI maturity, and structure their teams to embrace the future of search and discovery.

Executive Summary

Algolia’s How Search Teams Work: Building Exceptional Search Experiences report focuses on how people build search. It examines the priorities, technologies, and collaborations between the roles that work together to create outstanding search and discovery experiences. It examines current practices and looks ahead to future trends and areas of importance for search builders and decision-makers.

Continued and growing adoption of AI

AI continues to be used to build search, with 82% of teams using AI regularly. With AI use so widespread, it’s no longer an innovation, but a standard part of search development. As AI tools improve and use deepens across roles, the small minority of builder teams not using AI will be left even further behind.

Competing viewpoints on build vs. buy

Our research showed that miscommunication between executives and developers makes build vs. buy a contentious issue for most search builder teams. Executives have the expectation that search tools come out-of-the-box ready to deploy. Developers understand that search platforms need customizing for optimum performance. Some developers prefer building from scratch using open source tools despite the heavy maintenance burden it places on the organization.

Improved communication helps executives and developers see the value in blending buy and build with appropriate developer customizations for maximum effectiveness. As a result, soft skills are becoming an important success factor for search builder teams.

Growing reliance on low-code and no-code tools

The rise of low-code and no-code tools is facilitating search development, with 57% of non-developer team members now using code. Non-developers primarily use these tools to analyze data and maintain the search instance after developers have moved to other projects. 

These tools help search builder teams fill gaps and work more efficiently. Developers are also using low-code and no-code tools for rapid prototyping to work faster and save time for high-priority tasks. Low-code platforms are fostering collaboration between technical and non-technical team members by bridging communication gaps and aligning project goals.

Despite the proliferation of new tool types, search builders feel their toolkit is manageable. Conversely, product managers reported having too many tools (47%). In many cases, this excess may be a function of their role. Product managers are the hub of the search builder team and need access to every role’s specialized toolkit. Low-code and no-code tools may lower this load on product managers going forward.

Online sources help buyers make search decisions

Online searches and social media platforms stood out as primary sources of information around search for key decision makers. At the testing stage, direct experimentation stood out as the preferred method across roles to learn about tools and inform buying decisions.

Search is a team effort

Search development is a non-siloed collaborative activity. While the roles that come together to build and deliver search and discovery experiences exhibit different development priorities, search performance objectives, technical expertise and soft skills, no single role can make an outstanding search experience alone. Teamwork is necessary to build outstanding search experiences.

 

Key trends

AI is pervasive

Eighty-two percent of teams are already regularly using AI to build search experiences. The power and accuracy of AI is growing exponentially, and usage is only expected to increase. New tools that integrate AI, including low-code and no-code tools and generative AI, are driving AI usage in search development.

Search requires citizen developers

Fifty-seven percent of non-developers working on search and discovery regularly use code. The proliferation of low-code and no-code tools is helping those without technical backgrounds bring their areas of search expertise directly into search platform development with less reliance on developers and engineers. Gen AI tools may also be accelerating this trend.

Innovation comes from integrating the right analytics tool

Innovative teams — those that define themselves as “always looking to improve” — took advantage of at least four different analytics tools on average compared to non-innovative teams that averaged only two tools. Diverse measurement is an important tool that helps teams not only develop better tools, but work efficiently and effectively.

Cross-collaboration is required for search

The majority of search team members (70-80%) say they collaborate frequently with their colleagues in other functions. However, only 58% of non-developers report working frequently with developers. Successful teams are finding ways to ensure non-developers have developer support while not overburdening developers themselves.

Loyal customers are more important than net new customers

Customer retention rate stands out as a key metric, with 64% of companies selecting it as their most important driver. It’s even more important for companies that self-identify as “innovative;” 72% put customer retention at the top of their KPIs.

 

Participant profiles

As part of our inaugural How Search Teams Work: Building Exceptional Search Experiences trends report, we surveyed 1,245 builders of search experiences across a range of roles and industries. We designed our survey to develop a holistic understanding of what it takes to build search and discovery experiences with input across key stakeholders and job roles across organizations. Our report provides insights on the business challenges faced by various search team roles. 

Drawing 90% of its insights from five industries, the study places particular focus on search builders in the ecommerce and retail sector:

• Ecommerce and retail 66%
• Technology and cloud services 12%
• Consulting and other agencies 5%
• Finance 4%
• Media and communications 3%

Study participants occupy a variety of roles and represent every department, from the C-suite to marketing and product management. Two-thirds of respondents are developers, engineers, and senior leadership, reflecting a close hands-on connection to the search and discovery experience.

• Developers and engineers 42%
• Senior leadership and C-suite 18%
• Marketing 15%
• Merchandising 11%
• Product marketing 7%
• Product management 5%
• Other 2%

Respondents build search experiences for audiences of every size, measured in terms of monthly visitors to their website.

North and South America and EMEA countries represent 36% and 43% of those surveyed and 21% are from APAC countries.

Just under half of survey participants (44%) work at small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) . The remainder are at enterprise-sized (ENT) (24%) and mid-market (MM) businesses (31%).

To ensure depth of understanding of the search builder space, the study was agnostic with respect to industry and company size.
The Algolia How Search Teams Work: Building Exceptional Search Experiences report is produced by the Algolia Research and Insights team. The survey was conducted online in the form of a Work Experience Survey in 2024.

 

Search team collaboration

Executives, developers, product managers, marketers, and merchandisers are the primary roles in search builder teams. They develop the search tools that reach customers, grow revenue, and keep businesses competitive. 

Search team collaboration is critical to success. Our research uncovers emerging trends that impact these workflows, such as the growing importance of soft skills and the use of low-code and no-code tools by business users.

Expertise

Any team developing a software-driven experience must possess some technical skill. Our respondents all contribute to the search experience in their day-to-day work. However, 60% of respondents feel they have a good degree of search technology expertise. Levels of expertise were consistent between executives and other users. Among executives, 30% felt they had average experience and 12% had little or no expertise. Among other business users, 25% had average expertise and 14% had low to no search expertise.

Teams that aspire to use advanced features, such as autocomplete, faceted search, and natural language processing, need specialists. Experienced team members can customize and scale search solutions to meet evolving business objectives.

Non-technical personnel, however, have a vital place on the search building team. A beginner’s mindset brings fresh perspectives and innovations to the table. Newcomers are more apt to experiment and solve problems creatively, fostering a culture of adaptation and opening up non-conventional solutions for the search experience.

Soft and technical skills

Search development is no longer the exclusive domain of technical personnel. The rise of low-code and no-code tools allows individuals with minimal coding experience to contribute to search building projects. While technical skills are still valued, soft skills are also in high demand.

The trend toward soft skills also reflects broader market trends. It’s no longer sufficient to be highly skilled at any one function of a given role, such as writing code or creating campaigns. Collaborations are necessary and valued, with the expectation that people are able to work together, communicate, and get alignment.

Success is not achievable inside silos, and soft skills are therefore necessary.

Budget constraints and staffing challenges are compelling organizations to rely more on cross-functional development by in-house teams. Search teams need team players and problem solvers. They need strong leaders and effective communicators to explain search fundamentals to other users in the organizations.

Respondents across roles ranked soft skills in importance:

• Problem solving 83%
• Team player/teamwork 80%
• Communication skills 74%
• Empathy 68%
• Creating strategy 68%
• Leadership 68%
• Time management 67%
• Presenting 62%

A challenge for search teams with soft skills is where to go for technical support. Teams often choose to hire specialized developers or work cross-functionally with developers from IT. In our study, only a small portion (6%) of respondents had dedicated developers on their team, while 26% had no dedicated developer support for search. The rest relied on ad hoc developer support.

When resources allow it, embedding a developer in the search team is preferred. Focused support lets teams implement search features quickly, then iterate effectively to continuously enhance the search experience.

Low-code solutions

More non-professional developers are taking on activities that previously required coding. They’re using no-code, low-code, and analytics platforms to automate tasks in departments outside of IT.

These non-technical “coders” are part of today’s search builder teams. Among those in business roles, 65% of executives used code, as did 63% of marketers, 53% of merchandisers, and 33% of product managers.

Instead of relying on engineers for coding support, business users without technical backgrounds are automating workflows, configuring category pages, and developing customizations. Their awareness of customer experience bridges the gap between business objectives and search solutions. They’re helping departments work independently and innovate faster, bringing agility and efficiency to the overall organization.

Benefits for the entire team

No-code, low-code solutions also boost the productivity of professional developers. They simplify and speed up routine tasks, shortening development cycles and reducing the time to delivery. Pre-built components and drag-and-drop interfaces reduce effort and minimize errors.

These advantages were also appreciated by developers. Two-thirds of developer respondents preferred low- and medium-code approaches for analytics (64%) and administrative tasks (65%). Full-code and medium-code were favored for high-level work, including app creation (85%) and data integration (78%).

While we typically associate no-code solutions with non-developers, even developers benefit from not having to always write code. Developers appreciate low-code solutions for their ability to accelerate application development and streamline workflows.

These platforms enable rapid prototyping and deployment, allowing developers to focus on high-priority tasks and complex coding challenges.

This efficiency fosters innovation, as developers can quickly test and iterate on new ideas. Additionally, low-code platforms facilitate collaboration with non-technical stakeholders, bridging communication gaps and aligning project goals. By leveraging low-code solutions, developers enhance productivity, reduce development cycles, and deliver robust applications faster and more efficiently.

Cross-functional collaboration

Building any software system is a multidisciplinary effort. Building highly performant search functionality requires the collaboration of marketing, product management, and engineering.

MARKETING: Understands user behavior and preferences with respect to search

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT: Develops strategy and prioritizes features to enhance the search experience

ENGINEERING: Develops and optimizes the search technology

Effective communication and collaboration ensure the search solution is technically sound, user-centric, and meets business goals. Our study shows respondents engage in this type of teamwork daily. The majority of search team members (70-80%) say they collaborate frequently with colleagues in other functions, with business and technology teams naturally gravitating towards each other to understand points of view around skills they lack.

Product managers work primarily with marketers (83%) and developers (72%) on search. Developers work more independently, except when they’re collaborating on search with product managers (67%) and somewhat less frequently with marketers (55%).

The collaborations between product managers and developers are especially valuable for search development. Product managers talk first to developers first to fill information gaps. Conversely, developers seek information from product managers first. Product managers provide a valuable conduit between the business and technology sides of search. They have a sufficient grip on technology to provide a broad understanding of how the functionality relates to customer profiles and helps meet long-term business goals.

The most frequent collaborations for executives on search are with marketers (85%) and product managers (74%). Only 58% work frequently with developers.

The preference among executives for connecting with product managers over developers reflects technology trends. For leadership, there’s been a shift in concern about how search is built to how search experiences accomplish business goals in a human-centric way. Fueled by the rise of low-code, no-code, and truly headless platforms, leadership teams are more concerned about the soft side of development, including creativity, ease of use, and accessibility.

For merchandisers, product managers (62%) and marketers (55%) are fairly strong collaborators. They have less direct interaction with developers (34%).

Given the lack of dedicated developers on most search teams, developer collaboration may need attention or encouragement. However, those collaborations need organizational support to succeed. As it stands, 71% of developers report spending a significant amount of their time explaining technical concepts to peers.

Organizations that spread technical expertise too thin risk alienating developers by demanding too much. They may also miss development goals because developers don’t have time.

As noted, some search teams are turning to citizen developers to fill the gap.

 

Technology considerations impacting search

Search teams use a variety of software and toolkits to build and optimize customer experiences. While different roles tend to use those tools in different ways, today’s tools and platforms increasingly incorporate ML and AI. AI-enabled search, for instance, improves search accuracy and relevance and speed. Many businesses want to adapt, but must balance the cost and benefits of innovation. Some business users feel they lack the technical expertise to implement advanced tools, but that’s changing with greater availability of low-code and no-code tools.

AI maturity

AI adoption is close to universal in terms of building search experiences. With 82% of respondents regularly using AI, only 18% are lagging on AI adoption.  AI is no longer viewed as an innovative approach to search experience development, but a standard working practice. This corresponds to a typical diffusion of innovations model, and indicates we’ve reached the end of the late majority phase.

Search builder roles that still lag on AI adoption are getting left behind. The challenge for many organizations is getting up to speed quickly and efficiently.

Notably, company security is the top reason that users (18%) cited for not using AI. Of non-users of AI, 40% said their company security team had banned its use in their development and working processes.

Across respondents (excluding executives) who were not allowed to use AI, the biggest challenges faced when working with new tools such as AI search were security, budget availability, and functionality/feature set.

AI-enabled tools

Respondents use AI for four primary tasks: to write code (33%), for administrative tasks (25%), to manage technology (24%), and to build AI experiences (17%). Interestingly, those with non-dev backgrounds (57%) are regularly using code to build and use search tools. Product marketers appear to be the primary drivers of adding AI to the working process, with 84% of PMs using AI daily.

Search teams are adopting generative AI tools to simplify and automate complex tasks. Of the marketers who write code, 50% use generative AI to ensure their code is of high quality. As these tools become commonplace, marketers and other non-technical personnel will be able to write code, navigate advanced technical features and automate workflows without deep programming expertise. Organizations that adopt generative AI can bridge the skills gap while freeing up time for higher-level creative and strategic tasks.

Software, analytics, and the search platform

Software

A growing proportion of individuals in business roles are contributing to AI search development. This reflects a broader development trend tied to the proliferation of low-code and no-code tools and platforms. These tools let people without technical backgrounds or programming expertise collaborate on search building projects in various ways.

In the development community, these new no-code coders are often referred to as citizen developers. While the participation of non-technical personnel in search building is still in its early stages, it is on the rise. Forrester estimates a 21% growth rate in citizen developer strategies in the next five years, due to the institutionalization of low-code in IT.

In contrast to their developer peers, citizen developers overwhelmingly use code to:

• Analyze and interpret data 
• Maintain a search instance after the initial development team has moved on to other projects

The question then becomes how much software do builders need and is software consolidation beneficial. The assumption among business leaders is that development teams want fewer software tools for added simplicity and efficiency.

Most search builders, however, are satisfied with their current toolset.

Seventy-one percent of respondents said they had just the right amount of software for their needs. One quarter of respondents (23%) said they had too much software and only 5% indicated they lacked required software tools. This dominant trend reinforces the argument in favor of API integration, which supports specialized tools tailored to specific tasks.

A single platform may suit builders and situations with “too much” software. However, consolidation may also sacrifice tool diversity.

Analytics

Analytics are essential to the search and discovery experience. Today’s AI search algorithms identify and understand user preferences, keywords, and content types. While these insights can be automatically generated, they can be technically complex to integrate. Search builder teams therefore need strategic planning and robust analytics to respond to market dynamics and deliver optimal search experiences.

Analytics are leveraged differently by the different groups of our research respondents. Respondents who identified their organizations as innovative (“We’re always looking to improve”) took advantage of at least four different analytics tools on average. Conversely, respondents who identified as being from non-innovative organizations (“We prefer to use what’s always worked”) appeared to use only two kinds of tools.

Among the choice of analytics tools, Google Analytics was overwhelmingly selected by 77% of respondents. Excel and Power BI were the two next most popular tools, used by 51% and 20% of respondents, respectively. Nine other analytics tools were used by 14% or fewer of the respondents.

The search platform

As our research shows, teams responsible for building or selecting search software have a range of priorities that guide their process. When asked to list the criteria that were most important in selecting a search platform, respondents chose ease of use (59%), search speed (52%), and customizability (51%) above all. Executives and business users generally share these priorities, with executives slightly prioritizing ease of use and business users slightly favoring search speed.

Ease of use
65% of executives, 57% of business users

Search speed
46% of executives, 53% of business users

Customizability
51% of executives, 51% of business users 

The strength of the search vendor (as measured in total queries) and the availability of case studies and customer stories about vendor-specific experiences were also ranked as important criteria when it came to search platform selection.

However, when it comes to value, decision-makers tend to prioritize the business outcomes of search. C-suite respondents selected customer experience improvement as their top priority (81%), with revenue growth (79%), cost containment (78%), and productivity improvement (75%) ranked close behind.

Since search building relies on both developer and executive input, priorities should be communicated and discussed during search platform selection. The end-user experience impacts business outcomes, but that experience is enhanced when a platform is robust, has advanced capabilities, works fast, and is easy to use and customize.

 

Considerations when building a search experience

The search experience reflects the decisions, priorities, and scope of knowledge of the team that maintains and improves it. For insight, our survey explored common challenges encountered by search teams and the importance of hybrid search and search ROI in the building process. We also asked respondents how they stayed informed about search software.

Challenges

Once an organization has selected and implemented a search platform, their challenges seem to shift. From a list of 19 challenges, survey respondents identified up to five of the biggest obstacles they face. Notably, the top three challenges are all technology related:

• Too many manual tasks, not enough automation 29%
• Keeping track of changes in the market 27%
• Integration, different pieces of software don’t share information 26%

The fact that so many respondents were concerned about keeping track of market changes is likely attributable to the high proportion of ecommerce businesses in our sample. These organizations are more likely to be affected by macroeconomic pressures, technological innovation as well as dramatic shifts in customer behaviors. 

Search builders are keenly aware that manual processes can produce errors and delays, which frustrate customers and negatively impact business outcomes. Automating search tasks with AI-driven algorithms and machine learning alleviates these and other challenges, including search accuracy, speed, and relevance for site visitors.

Key challenges iterating on search

Hybrid search

Given the prevalence of the ecommerce and retail sector in our respondent sample, it’s not surprising that the content site visitors seek most frequently comprises consumer goods (56%), services (45%), and business products (38%).

At the same time, search builder teams recognize that users visit sites and apps seeking other types of content. While fewer teams build search experiences for discovering media (29%), locations (16%), and people (14%), these often complement more ecommerce-centric content.

For teams that need to build quality experiences for multiple content types, platforms that support hybrid search are indispensable.

Popularity of search content

About half (52%) of our respondents build search to accommodate a single content type. The other half (48%) provide hybrid search experiences that integrate two or more (and up to seven) content types. For example, a baking ecommerce site might provide four content types:

1. An ecommerce inventory of baking ingredients and supplies
2. How-to videos
3. Recipes, blogs, and FAQ
4. Store locator

The more content types, the more challenges. Search teams need sophisticated algorithms to balance relevance across different content types.

Integration can be challenging, as different content types have different structures and formats and draw on different data sources. Different teams managing different content sources can be another complicating factor.

The best practice is to offer a seamless, intuitive, and accurate user experience regardless of content type. However, managing the performance and scalability of a hybrid search engine is demanding. To orchestrate the process, search builder teams need robust infrastructure and considerable technical expertise. Optimal performance also requires continuous fine-tuning.

Number of content types companies expect to include in their search instance

Balancing investment and ROI

In 2023, 71% of organizations that used sophisticated search technologies saw increased revenue.  With increased pressure on profitability, it’s no surprise that ROI is the dominant consideration driving search investment.

The following are the highest-ranked reasons for investing in search: 

• Customer experience improvement 81%
• Revenue growth 79%
• Cost containment 78%
• Productivity improvement 75%
• Process improvement 72%

At the same time, a range of factors prevent search teams from achieving ROI with search. The most significant barrier for every category of search builder and company was insufficient budget, followed by lack of resources and lack of executive buy-in.

• Lack of budget 47%
• Lack of resources 37%
• Lack of executive support 19%

Barriers to search development

The two factors go hand-in-hand. Beyond the initial investment in advanced technology, teams need skilled professionals to implement features and optimize performance. Funding gaps prevent search builders from adapting quickly and efficiently to customer needs and market changes.

Investing in search helps balance new revenue with cost containment. Better and more personalized search and discovery experiences attract customers. They drive conversions through cross-selling and upselling. Internally, advanced help streamlines workflows, improving efficiency and lightening the workload.

Prioritizing new revenue maximizes top-line growth while cost containment stabilizes the bottom line. Organizations that balance these priorities are more likely to meet their business goals.

Top considerations when selecting search tools

Search software discovery and learning strategies

Before building a search platform or making improvements to existing systems, search builders need to know about the latest software and technology tools and trends. Survey respondents consulted a range of sources to gather information, learn how technologies work and to keep up with relevant industry news. 

Across all roles, searching online is the most popular way to find information (71%). Sixty percent of respondents also consult social media sites, including X (formerly Twitter). User reviews (54%) and online forums like Discord and Reddit (53%) are also favorite learning channels.

Some roles have specialized preferences. Engineers and developers search online (78%) and visit forums (64%) more frequently than other users. Marketers consulted social media (66%) and marketing resources (58%) more often than colleagues in other roles. Senior executives found all channels valuable and used them more or equally as often as respondents in other functions.

• Searching online, such as Google 71%
• Social media, such as Twitter or LinkedIn 60%
• Reviews from other users 54%
• Online forums or communities (Discord, Reddit, etc.) 53%
• Recommendations from peers or colleagues 46%
• Marketing resources (blogs, newsletters, etc.) 43%
• 3rd-party analysts 30%

Most valuable channels for learning about new search products

Team members interacting with search also have to operate new technologies and software. Our respondents, with and without technical expertise, use a mix of online and hands-on methods, demos and documentation. Experimenting directly with new technology is preferred (26%), followed by video tutorials (21%), and hands-on training (15%).

Preferred way to learn about new technology