Online shoppers’ expectations continue to evolve. Once-adequate search solutions may struggle to deliver the features, speed, and accuracy customers now demand. This is where an AI-powered search can help.

But when is the right time to consider adopting AI search technology? Here are four signs that indicate that it’s time to look for a search solution that does more.

1. Your merchandising team is overextended

Basic search solutions require your team to spend hours on manual merchandising – gathering synonyms and curating lists of bestselling items.

These AI-powered search features save time by automating manual tasks, speeding up workflow, and optimizing search results:

• Dynamic Re-Ranking: AI-aided reinforcement learning analyzes customer activity data and shuffles results automatically for popular queries. Assign rules and attributes like “sale” to rank results that support your business objectives.
• AI Synonym Suggestions: AI algorithms are trained on historical data to predict synonyms automatically based on user queries – and surface new synonyms over time.
• Query Categorization: Machine learning matches search queries automatically to the right categories in your index.

But don’t replace your merchandisers just yet! The best AI search provides automation plus control. Sales and seasonal campaigns and targeted promotions demand a finely calibrated approach. You need to simulate results, A/B test, and tune rankings and relevance with custom rules. AI frees your merchandising team to spend time on these value-generating tasks.

2. You want a more personalized search experience

Personalized search is everywhere. Streaming platforms anticipate our music and movie tastes. Mapping apps save us time by knowing our favorite destinations. Online merchants make suggestions that reflect our shopping habits.

Customers increasingly expect tailored digital interactions. When a store seems to anticipate a customer’s needs, it saves time and feels special. That translates into higher engagement, more conversions, and repeat business.

AI personalization generates sophisticated user profiles from user activity, such as clicks, purchases, and feedback. Those profiles are then leveraged with recommendation engines to make intuitive predictions and page-level adjustments to boost products your customers are likely to want.  With AI, you can:

• Re-shuffle the facet list so previously purchased brands are at the top
• Generate product recommendations to “accessorize” what’s already in the shopping cart
• Dynamically generate a personalized promotional offer to encourage conversion

Every touchpoint can be tailored, creating a unique experience for each customer, which drives engagement and improves KPIs.

3. You want better search accuracy

The effectiveness of search is measured in accuracy and relevance. If a customer searching for a new mobile enters phone and sees headphones at the top of the page, it’s awkward and frustrating. Likewise, If the customer makes a typo and enters pohne, they will be frustrated if they get zero results.

AI search is powered by language models trained on massive amounts of data to understand natural language. With AI, customers use the expressions that are natural for them. The AI understands their intent and provides accurate results.

As time goes on, the AI will recognize popular search terms specific to your products and customers even more precisely. With AI systems that continuously improve, the likelihood of negative customer experiences (such as the dreaded null results) diminishes.

4. You lack technical resources

If you have a lean developer squad you might be reticent to move to a new technology. If search is complex, AI search must be even more so… right?

The truth is that an AI search solution is a boon for organizations with fewer technical resources. Before AI, clothing company Everlane faced challenges in managing its product data. Its lean engineering team was devoting too much time cleaning up data and implementing systems to feed the data efficiently into search.

When they upgraded to an AI-powered platform, that roadblock disappeared along with most of their maintenance work. In their words, it was like, “literally flipping a switch.”

Search solutions like Algolia are built to democratize AI search so that AI capabilities are no longer accessible only to internet search giants with endless resources or companies with deep technical capability.

Algolia’s API-first SaaS platform employs a building block interface that is fast to deploy. It has libraries, plugins, pre-built connectors, templates and a code exchange that make integration smooth and efficient.

After rapid configuration, non-technical users can operate the full array of AI capabilities – AI Analytics, AI Recommendations, and more – from intuitive, no-code dashboards with drag-and-drop functionality.

AI’s getting more powerful by the minute – there’s no reason to delay

If you struggle with any of these challenges, it’s the perfect time to upgrade to AI. With AI-powered search, you can deliver extraordinary accuracy and personalized search with less effort and fewer resources.

With the right AI search solution, workflow and customer service improvements can have a big impact on your KPIs. After upgrading to Algolia:

• Clothing retailer Oh Polly increased conversions by 5.4%
• Eyewear company Zenni increased conversions by 9% and grew search revenue by 34%

Start your AI journey with the world’s only end-to-end, API-first AI search solution.

Learn more about Algolia AI search today.