What is happening to Search and Discovery? Interview with Nate Barad from Algolia
⇒ Background
Search and discovery in e-commerce are undergoing a major transformation driven by AI, reshaping how people find and interact with products. Here’s a high-level overview of what’s changing:
From Keywords to Intent: Understanding What Shoppers Really Mean
Traditional e-commerce search engines relied on keyword matching—if you typed "red dress," you'd get every product tagged with those exact words. Now, AI-powered search uses natural language understanding, vector embeddings, and semantic search to grasp intent behind the query.
Example: “What should I wear to a beach wedding?” yields curated options, not just literal results.
From Static Search Boxes to Conversational Interfaces
Shoppers are moving from typing in a static search bar to conversing with AI assistants—via chatbots, voice, or even video.
AI shopping assistants help users browse, compare, and decide—like a digital store associate.
Search is becoming interactive, multi-turn, and feels more like a conversation than a query.
From Search to Discovery
Historically, shoppers had to know what they were looking for. Now, discovery is part of the journey:
AI curates personalized recommendations based on browsing, purchase behavior, and preferences.
Dynamic collections and guided shopping tools (like Algolia’s Shopping Guides) proactively present relevant options without requiring a specific query.
Visual discovery (e.g., "show me similar styles") allows exploration via images instead of words.
From One-Size-Fits-All to Hyper-Personalization
AI tailors results to each shopper:
Takes into account context (device, location, previous behavior).
Adjusts ranking dynamically—two users may get different results for the same query.
Enables zero-click experiences (e.g., showing exactly what the user wants on the homepage without a search).
From Search to Decision and Conversion
Search no longer ends with a list of links—it’s now part of the decision-making engine:
LLMs help summarize reviews, highlight product differences, and explain specs.
AI generates comparison charts, FAQs, and even product guides on the fly.
Helps overcome choice overload by acting as a trusted guide, not just a search tool.
From Static Catalogs to Real-Time Intelligence
Search and discovery now reflect real-time inventory, pricing, availability, and promotions.
AI adapts dynamically, even re-ranking products based on store stock or trending items.
⇒ Interview
In this conversation I speak with Nate Barad on how Algolia is tranitioning search software to the new age of conversational discovery.
Algolia is a search and discovery API platform focused on delivering fast, relevant, and customizable search for web and mobile apps. It provides a hosted search engine that lets developers integrate real-time, typo-tolerant search with features like:
InstantSearch.js and front-end SDKs
AI-powered relevance tuning
Personalization and merchandising tools
A/B testing and analytics
Dynamic re-ranking
Key Industries Served by Alogolia include ecommerce (e.g., LVMH, Gymshark), media & publishing (e.g., Medium, NBC), SaaS / enterprise apps and marketplaces
Watch on YouTube.
Apple Podcasts.
Thanks for reading, listening and watching our interviews! We regulary update industry and company information on this and other topics, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date.
And of course feel free to share with others who might find our content beneficial.