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What is AI-powered site search and why it’s the future

Publish Date

May 11, 2024

Your website is the heart and soul of your online presence. It’s your digital storefront, the place where about 67% of potential customers come to learn more about your brand and products.

So, to make a lasting positive impression, your website must offer a seamless and enjoyable experience.

However, even the best-designed websites fail to deliver a good user experience. Users often have to go through confusing, information-cluttered, and non-personalized web pages to find what they need. 

This can frustrate visitors and turn them away, which costs businesses valuable leads and sales.

That’s where you need the AI-powered site search. This smart technology provides a smooth user experience and changes how people navigate your website. 

Keep reading to discover how this advanced technology can cut costs, boost customer satisfaction, and drive more sales. 

What is AI-powered site search?

AI-powered site search is a conversational interface that gives human-like responses to visitors’ queries. It understands the intent behind the words visitors type into the search bar and provides them relevant and accurate results.

AI site search tools use a combination of AI technology to achieve this understanding. Natural Language Processing (NLP) helps them understand the human language as it’s spoken and written. Machine Learning (ML) enables them to continuously learn through user interactions and become smarter over time.

For example, Chatsimple’s AI-powered site search is a smart sales assistant that understands each visitor’s needs and helps them find the products, services, or information they want. This smooth experience keeps users engaged, makes them satisfied, and helps them make quick decisions.

Unlike traditional search, which often relies on rigid keywords, AI search engines for websites are highly intelligent. They can understand and answer complex questions (even if the questions have typos). 

This level of customer service positions your brand as someone who cares for its audience, improving brand perception and customer lifetime value.

The image shows an example of AI-powered site search.
Example of AI search engine for websites

5 Promising benefits of AI-powered site search

AI search for websites can help your business in several ways. Here are the five most significant ones:

Supports visitors with helpful responses

AI-powered site search gives high-quality and natural responses. They use large language models (LLMs) to sound exactly like humans. This increases website engagement and keeps visitors happy.

Besides, AI search for websites can understand your business through your web pages and product catalogs to provide accurate responses. Whether someone is looking for a specific product feature, troubleshooting a problem, or seeking general information, AI search delivers to-the-point results that help them find what they need quickly.

Improves website personalization

90% of leading marketers say personalization significantly improves business profitability. When a website is tailored to visitors’ preferences, they are more likely to connect with your brand and convert into your customers. AI-powered site search helps you achieve that.

By understanding the context behind visitor’s search queries, AI search tools can develop a deep understanding of their unique needs and interests. This allows the tool to deliver personalized responses and product recommendations that resonate with visitors.

For instance, if a customer is searching for hiking boots on an e-commerce website, an AI-powered search tool would understand their price range to give them personalized recommendations. This level of website personalization makes the customer feel understood and valued.

Makes your website a sales machine

An AI-powered search engine is not just a search bar. It’s a sales assistant that works tirelessly to guide your website visitors down the sales funnel. 

It can ask visitors lead-capture questions and collect their contact details to capture high-quality leads. It can also book sales meetings, promote your products through personalized recommendations, upsell and cross-sell relevant items, and even handle common sales objections.

The AI search tool does all this while conversing with your website visitors, creating a smooth and positive experience for them. This builds trust and rapport, ultimately increasing the likelihood of conversion.

AI search engine for websites can capture inbound leads.
AI-powered site search tool can also capture inbound leads

Automates your sales funnel

An AI search engine for websites can automate your sales funnel to free up your team. This tool can do repetitive and time-consuming tasks like answering FAQs, collecting reviews, generating leads, scheduling meetings, and so on.

So, instead of wasting time on these laborious tasks, your team can focus on high-value activities like closing deals and building long-term customer relationships. This increases your business productivity and efficiency. You also save a lot of money as the overhead costs reduce.

Gives you a competitive advantage

AI search offers your customers experiences that would be impossible with traditional tools.

For instance, you can provide 24/7 customer support without the need for a large call center staff. AI search can handle thousands of customer queries at any moment of day or night, ensuring that your buyers always feel supported.

Some AI search engines for websites can answer in 100s of languages, letting you cater to a global audience and expand your reach.

Furthermore, AI search can be integrated with messaging platforms like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, allowing you to connect with your customers where they are. This level of accessibility boosts customer loyalty and helps your business get ahead of others.

Is AI-powered search the future?

The rise of AI-powered search engines is changing how people find information online. While Google has long dominated the landscape, new players like OpenAI are challenging the status quo with their innovative AI-based conversational interface.

You already know how the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022 raised the bar. It reached millions of users in just 5 days, a record-breaking phenomenon. Using ChatGPT, you can ask complex questions and receive personalized and helpful responses, which is in stark contrast to the list of blue links provided by Google. 

This conversational approach is gaining popularity. For instance, Microsoft has already integrated ChatGPT into its Bing search engine, making it the first major search engine to offer an AI-powered conversational search experience.

There are also several other AI-based search engines, such as Andi Search, Metaphor AI Search, Perplexity.ai, etc. What’s more, OpenAI is about to launch its new ChatGPT-powered search engine to take on Google and Microsoft’s Bing.

And if we talk about the global generative AI market size, it is expected to grow from 45 billion USD in 2023 to nearly 207 billion USD by 2030.

This growing preference and continuous advancements in AI technology show that AI-powered search is here to stay and revolutionize businesses in the coming days.

How to integrate AI search into your website?

Now, you know the power of AI search engines for websites, but how do you get started? 

Building your own AI system can be costly and time-consuming. Fortunately, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Third-party platforms offer ready-to-use AI search solutions that can be easily integrated into your website.

One such solution is Chatsimple’s AI sales agent. This sales agent lives on your website and engages with every visitor. It appears as a search bar at the bottom of your website where users can type in or speak their queries and get personalized responses.

Here are some remarkable features of Chatsimple’s AI sales agent:

  • Provides instant, personalized, and human-like responses 24/7
  • Responds in over 175 languages, breaking down language barriers 
  • Understands customer needs and guides them through the sales funnel
  • Integrates with CRM platforms to automatically save lead information
  • Integrates with social platforms to support customers where they are.

Best of all, this AI-powered site search tool is incredibly easy to train. You can get it up and running on your website in under five minutes with just a few clicks. Visit this page to learn more about Chatsimple’s AI sales agent.

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