How often do you search through multiple systems to find information? How many queries do you send through email every day? Chances are, you’re doing it wrong. There’s a growing trend in data and business intelligence called “intelligent search.” And it’s evolving traditional information and knowledge discovery.

Intelligent search has its roots in machine learning (ML), natural language processing, and Cognitive Engagement (AI). Together, these technologies combine to help employees find the infomation they need when they need it most. It can help your organization find information faster, helping employees work smarter across the entire organization.

Making  Search Smarter

Forget data lakes; we’re drowning in data swamps. The massive amount of data we gather has made creating the right search query a challenge. The search for answers within our own gigantic digital filing systems can be a big time waster.

Part of the problem is that our data is rarely neatly categorized. It comes in the form of emails, video, Word docs, Excel files, and many more. It is often strewn across business functions, many times in database silos that lack integration let alone cohesion.

But new intelligent search technologies are helping companies get the information they need to make smarter business decisions faster. Intelligent search uses machine learning to find relationship patterns, cull from multiple siloed data sources, and learn from past history to add insight to a stalled search process.

AI-driven intelligent search can be the thread running through a disparate data patchwork. The “traditional” search methods take your query and match it to expressions within the text. There’s no understanding of context or nuance in the query, and there’s certainly no historical trend changing how the rules engine delivers data back to the user. This sounds messy because, frankly, it is.

AI can now recognize language and utterances in a way that provides a better response. AI empowered intelligent search can do this in voice or text. Instead of culling keywords from a query, intelligent search understands meaning. It puts this knowledge together with user search history to return a much smarter response.

The Business Case for Intelligent Search

SAP calls intelligent search a mandatory best practice for organizations seeking data-driven insight. Intelligent search has multiple benefits, including:

1. Enhancing the quality of data retrieval.
2. Improving customer service.
3. Increasing corporate knowledge base by looking at all unstructured data.
4. Eliminating silos between data from different departments.

The Future of Intelligent Search

ML and AI capabilities are helping knowledge workers hone their search processes. But we’re just getting started. AI can help organizations proactively gather intelligence simply based on a profile of prior searches. The intelligent search processes of the future will:

•  Automate processes that will eliminate busywork and focus employees on more meaningful work.
• Proactively respond to customers with personalized experiences.
• Create brand new business models that we haven’t even thought of yet.

SAP spells out clear business benefits for using AI-empowered intelligent search:

• Forty-eight percent of early adopters say increased profits are the number one benefit.
• There is a 527% improvement in profit margin for companies with a best-in-class customer experience.
• There is a 202% better business performance when companies have engaged and empowered workers.

The goal of AI has always been to help users become more efficient and productive. AI powered Intelligent Search is one step closer to that goal.

To find out more about optimizing search to empower your business, contact us.