Explore AI-assisted search in Empathy Platform
Keyword search remains the foundation of most search journeys, but it isn't always enough on its own. Shoppers phrase queries in ways that don't match your catalog, searches return no results, and organic data takes time to build up. Empathy Platform AI-assisted search closes these gaps.
AI-assisted search is a collection of AI-based features that strengthen keyword search at key points in the shopper journey: refining a query, recovering from zero results, and predicting what to search next. Unlike conversational search, which offers shoppers a distinct, fully conversational search experience, AI-assisted search doesn't replace keyword search. It works alongside your conventional search experience, stepping in exactly where keyword search falls short, so shoppers stay engaged with your catalog and always have a path forward.
Empathy Platform offers the following AI-based search and discovery features to complement your traditional keyword search experience while achieving key goals:
Guide shoppers with conversation
Guide your shoppers to what they want through conversation. These features interpret shopper intent and presents conversational questions that help shoppers narrow or expand their search.
Extend coverage where data is low
Conventional search features that rely on organic behavioral data or manual curation to work at full strength can still extend their coverage with AI-generated suggestions, so shoppers get relevant guidance even for queries with limited or no search history. Ideal for cold starts.
Recover from blank results pages
Getting low or no results at all is one of the biggest drop-off points in a search journey, even more when there are matching results in your catalog. Turn that dead end into a discovery opportunity, replacing a blank results page with relevant products, so shoppers find what they mean even when their exact wording doesn't appear in the catalog.
Protecting data privacy by design
Every feature in AI-assisted search runs on Empathy Platform's private, self-hosted infrastructure, powered by open and inspectable large language models deployed on self-hosted GPUs. No shopper, catalog, or query data leaves this environment, or is used to train external or competitor AI systems, so you get AI-driven search without compromising shopper trust or data sovereignty.
All AI-assisted search features are powered by Empathy.AI (opens new window), Empathy Platform's own AI infrastructure. Because these models run on servers you control, your commerce store keeps full ownership of its data and stays operational even during external outages, supporting a reliable, sustainable search experience.
Solving the cold start problem
All Empathy Platform AI-assisted search features generate suggestions from an LLM and your catalog data, so they don't need to rely on tagging or collective behavioral data the way conventional, organic suggestions do. This means new commerce stores and long-tail queries get relevant results from day one, instead of waiting for shopper interactions to build up.
Conventional, organic suggestions instead depend on accumulated shopper actions, such as queries, clicks, and add-to-cart events, so they take time to reach meaningful coverage across your catalog. AI-assisted search closes that gap immediately, giving every query, however recent or unusual, a relevant response from the moment your commerce store goes live.