00:00:00AI Search in Enterprise and E-Commerce
00:09:54E-Commerce Trends and Innovations
00:14:55Balancing Work and Family
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
Unlock the secrets behind AI-driven search capabilities with Bernadette Nixon, CEO of Algolia, as she takes us on a journey through the company's impact on industries like e-commerce, media, and SaaS. Learn how Algolia's mission to simplify the search experience has evolved, employing artificial intelligence to understand user intent and deliver personalized recommendations, surpassing traditional keyword searches. Bernadette delves into the transformative potential of generative AI, promising more intuitive and conversational shopping experiences. Discover how Algolia transitioned from a mobile-focused startup to an industry leader in AI search, serving over 17,000 customers.
Experience the latest innovations in e-commerce, including the pivotal shift from monolithic systems to composable architectures driven by APIs and headless e-commerce. Understand how strategic search functionalities and journey mapping are revolutionizing customer engagement, especially for complex purchases. We also celebrate Algolia's recognition in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for search and product discovery, while unveiling future plans centered on AI innovation and a robust merchandising studio. Closing on a personal note, Bernadette shares insights on balancing work and family commitments, offering a heartfelt conversation that resonates universally. Join us for an episode packed with groundbreaking ideas and personal reflections.
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel
English
United States
SHOW NOTES 🔗
TRANSCRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:00.841
for being here.
00:00:00.841 --> 00:00:11.830
Fascinating topic search, not what we think of typically in the enterprise, but a really relevant and important topic, particularly in this world of AI.
00:00:11.830 --> 00:00:16.291
Before that, maybe introduce yourself, your mission and the team at Algolia.
00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:18.321
Sure, absolutely so.
00:00:18.321 --> 00:00:19.182
Bernadette Nixon.
00:00:19.182 --> 00:00:36.887
I'm the CEO of Algolia and have been for just over four years now, and here at Algolia, we are an AI search company, and our purpose in life what makes us get up in the morning is enabling people to find what they're looking for without foraging.
00:00:39.014 --> 00:00:41.320
Well, that's a very simple mission statement.
00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:42.363
I love it.
00:00:42.363 --> 00:00:50.569
Maybe a little bit more color on some of the core problems and challenges your AI search solution is addressing in the enterprise.
00:00:52.152 --> 00:00:52.893
Yeah, for certain.
00:00:52.893 --> 00:00:56.768
So we have broad applicability.
00:00:56.768 --> 00:01:05.248
So we have the honor of serving about 17,000 customers in a broad range of verticals.
00:01:05.248 --> 00:01:15.075
Yes, so I would say that the top vertical that leverages us is the e-commerce space, or retail for omnichannel search.
00:01:15.075 --> 00:01:20.543
After that we have media companies that use us as well.
00:01:20.543 --> 00:01:34.930
As then, I would say our third largest vertical is other SaaS companies like ourselves that choose to embed us as search as they're building their own products instead of probably building it from scratch with open source.
00:01:35.320 --> 00:01:45.195
But the problem statement, no matter which vertical you're in, what you're trying to do is you're trying to enable people to find what they want.
00:01:45.195 --> 00:01:50.468
So, if you take the e-commerce use case, for example, everybody knows the search bar.
00:01:50.468 --> 00:02:02.180
If you bought anything online, then your highest intent moment as a company, as a brand, as a retailer, to capture somebody is when they're in the search bar, because that's when they have the highest intent.
00:02:02.180 --> 00:02:06.528
They know what they're looking for and you want, know, you want to convert them.
00:02:07.149 --> 00:02:14.455
But the interesting thing is that search actually powers a whole bunch of other stuff on a commercial on an e-com site, for example.
00:02:14.455 --> 00:02:18.067
So I'm looking to be inspired and find a new handbag.
00:02:18.067 --> 00:02:21.777
Well, I'm not going to be in the search bar.
00:02:21.777 --> 00:02:34.830
I'm going to be looking at their collections, their winter collection, their spring, maybe what's on sale, all of those pages they are merchandised, probably personalized to me, versus if you went on there to find something.
00:02:34.830 --> 00:02:47.483
And so all of that merchandising that is done on a collection page, on a product detail page, the recommendation carousels, all of that is also powered by search, whereas I don't think people think about that.
00:02:47.483 --> 00:02:48.766
They just think about the search bar.
00:02:48.766 --> 00:02:50.741
But it's so much more than that these days.
00:02:52.824 --> 00:03:00.484
Indeed, and AI and Gen AI has overwhelmed us all in the tech world, but it's also shaping the future of search.
00:03:00.484 --> 00:03:03.849
So what role do you see AI playing today?
00:03:03.849 --> 00:03:05.413
What role are you playing?
00:03:05.413 --> 00:03:06.354
And moving forward.
00:03:08.341 --> 00:03:15.104
Sure, because of that, it's a great time to be in search, because it's sort of on the tip of everybody's tongue what's new?
00:03:15.104 --> 00:03:17.411
What, in addition, can I do now?
00:03:17.411 --> 00:03:41.729
So AI plays a big role for us because we are the only search engine on the market that is end-to-end AI at every important layer of our technology, and so, for example, we've all been trained to search for blue top, hawaiian shirts, khaki trousers.
00:03:41.729 --> 00:03:43.394
That's keyword search.
00:03:43.394 --> 00:03:47.525
We've been sort of indoctrinated over the past 20-25 years to search like that.
00:03:47.525 --> 00:03:57.965
But it's, you know, with the advent of new technologies like chat, gpt, we are finding that people's the number of words that people are using in their search queries is is getting longer.
00:03:57.965 --> 00:04:01.272
Uh, and that's because we want to be able to search like we think.
00:04:01.621 --> 00:04:07.612
So I want an outfit for a summer wedding in Provence, france.
00:04:07.612 --> 00:04:10.407
You know that could be something that I would look for.
00:04:10.407 --> 00:04:17.329
Well, you know you need AI to be able to understand and intuit what I'm looking for.
00:04:17.329 --> 00:04:30.127
I'm going to be looking for a bright, summery outfit where there's probably not a lot of air conditioning, and something that's a bit fancy, because it's probably going to be a little bit upscale.
00:04:30.127 --> 00:04:33.944
So I don't put any of those things in my search query.
00:04:33.944 --> 00:04:57.591
But that's what AI is able to infer, and what we like to say here at Algolia is that the whole search market has really moved from purely matching keywords to really understanding, understanding my intent as the person that's searching, and then being able to understand that intent and present me with the best results and a whole bunch of other recommendations.
00:04:57.591 --> 00:05:08.024
If you bought this, then you're likely to want to buy this, or here are some other products that look similar, for example, and personalized recommendations for you.
00:05:08.084 --> 00:05:14.802
So AI is playing a big role in the search market today and I think that role will only increase.
00:05:14.802 --> 00:05:24.004
And if you think about generative AI, then I think where that's going to have the largest impact is with the discovery process.
00:05:24.004 --> 00:05:51.757
So more as you're browsing and as you're looking to search for something, maybe you can't find, you've done three or four searches and you've not clicked on anything in particular, and then you could have a generative, conversational shopping experience that could guide you and might be able to present you with buying guides, shopping guides or product comparisons to help you narrow down what you're looking for.
00:05:51.757 --> 00:05:53.228
Oh, you're looking for a TV.
00:05:53.228 --> 00:05:56.742
I see you haven't found anything that fits the bill yet.
00:05:56.742 --> 00:05:59.127
Are you looking for gaming or streaming?
00:05:59.127 --> 00:06:03.473
Oh, I'm looking for streaming, then you might want to consider these couple of options.
00:06:03.473 --> 00:06:18.367
So I think AI has a significant impact in search and I think Gen AI is also going to have a significant impact in the discovery or the browse part of what we do as part of a customer journey, for example.
00:06:19.809 --> 00:06:25.620
Well, great opportunity for online consumers and 17,000 plus enterprise customers.
00:06:25.620 --> 00:06:27.870
That's quite a customer base.
00:06:27.870 --> 00:06:32.685
What set you guys apart in this pretty crowded world of search and discovery?
00:06:34.247 --> 00:06:43.819
So, when we started, we started perfecting our art in the mobile space and going back to 2012, 2013, 2014,.
00:06:43.819 --> 00:06:52.391
Around that era and you know, I don't know about you, but my mobile phone didn't look, you know, quite like it does today with the power that I have available.
00:06:52.391 --> 00:06:58.226
So, as a consequence of that, we were always blazing fast from day one.
00:06:58.226 --> 00:07:08.370
So being fast is definitely one of the things that differentiates us, and you might say, well, fine, but didn't you crack that a long time ago?
00:07:08.370 --> 00:07:09.834
Why are you still talking about that?
00:07:09.834 --> 00:07:23.358
Because being fast in a world of AI is now, you know, a whole different ballgame that you also have to conquer, and I'm pleased to say we've been at it now a couple of years and at the core of our technology.
00:07:23.358 --> 00:07:25.973
I'm pleased to say that we have conquered that.
00:07:25.992 --> 00:07:39.100
So, being fast and also what I like to call global speed at scale so it's not just the 17,000 customers, but those 17,000 customers generate almost two trillion searches on our platform a year.
00:07:39.100 --> 00:07:43.387
Now, anything with a trillion sounds pretty good, but what does that really mean?
00:07:43.387 --> 00:07:56.766
Well, if you take I mean, forget Google for a moment but if you take the next five public search engines Bing, yahoo, baidu for China, yandex for Russia, duckduckgo for folks with privacy concerns.
00:07:56.766 --> 00:08:02.918
We have four times their combined entire volume on our platform in a year.
00:08:02.918 --> 00:08:13.315
So I would say global speed at scale and the speed, not just the speed of the search results, but the speed at which you can deploy and start using us.
00:08:13.315 --> 00:08:18.274
So, amongst other things, those are some of the things that set us apart.
00:08:20.117 --> 00:08:30.612
Fantastic and talk about your use in the enterprise for organizations, large organizations that might be globally distributed.
00:08:30.612 --> 00:08:39.197
How are they using you today and what are some of the values of not foraging, as you say, on intranets and other things for content?
00:08:46.524 --> 00:08:47.086
things for content.
00:08:47.086 --> 00:08:49.534
Sure, the part of the enterprise that we tend to be used in is for anybody that is customer facing.
00:08:49.534 --> 00:08:51.422
Now that could be in a retail setting.
00:08:51.422 --> 00:08:59.438
It could be in a financial services setting, whereby they're trying to establish whether Evan has all of the right.
00:08:59.438 --> 00:09:28.539
You know they need to cross sell too, so do you have all of the right financial products from you know a JP Morgan's Chase or a Morgan Stanley, for example and so their wealth managers could look at you, know what are you using product wise, and then they could be presented with the right information at the right time when it really counts and be able to present that information to you as a potential customer.
00:09:28.539 --> 00:09:44.761
So that's really not dealing with anything to do with online commerce, but it's to do with an individual who is still servicing a customer, and that's a really important segment for us, because we believe that speed is of the essence in those customer interactions.
00:09:46.745 --> 00:09:48.206
Yeah, no, it's absolutely true.
00:09:48.206 --> 00:09:54.212
I think we can all and have all experienced that firsthand Talk about your role in e-commerce.
00:09:54.212 --> 00:10:01.198
That's a big marketplace for you and things like APIs are taking off headless e-commerce.
00:10:01.198 --> 00:10:04.481
What other trends are you seeing there and how do you play into those?
00:10:05.943 --> 00:10:10.869
Sure In e-commerce in particular, although it's in other sectors as well.
00:10:10.869 --> 00:10:39.581
But it started off with a headless trend of disintermediating the front end experience from the back end stack, and now it's really evolved into composable architectures and we have been an API product since day one, been an API product since day one, and so we're an absolute shoo-in to anybody that is moving from more of a monolithic or an old tech stack into the composable world.
00:10:39.581 --> 00:10:40.825
That's really important.
00:10:40.825 --> 00:10:53.910
It enables you to change things on the front end for your customers, whether those are internal or external customers, and without having to go into the bowels of the back end.
00:10:53.910 --> 00:11:00.750
So being an API first product enables us to be ideal in that kind of situation.
00:11:00.830 --> 00:11:32.596
But the other interesting part about the composable movement is there are still some large enterprises out there that have the big monolithic stacks and although they have mentally made the decision they want to go composable, they know that that's going to be a multi-year journey because they may have so many different businesses or brands or countries or regions that they're servicing, and so search is a great way for those companies to really put their tip in or toe in the water, because it's easy to break search off.
00:11:32.596 --> 00:11:35.113
It impacts your customer experience.
00:11:35.113 --> 00:11:42.876
It impacts conversion if you're in e-commerce and it's very easy to plug us in, even to the older stacks.
00:11:42.876 --> 00:11:55.389
So I love it when there's a trend out there, when we can help customers win on the front end of that trend and when we can also help customers win, sort of trying to catch up to that trend, if you will.
00:11:56.965 --> 00:11:58.171
Oh, super interesting.
00:11:58.171 --> 00:12:04.277
So we've seen the trend towards a renewed focus on customer experience.
00:12:04.277 --> 00:12:12.556
Consumer experiences it's been nice to experience as an end user, but what are you seeing on the buyer side, the tech buyers?
00:12:12.556 --> 00:12:14.712
Does that filter down to your customers?
00:12:14.712 --> 00:12:23.537
Are they really doubling down on CX, and how has that affected your thinking about the product and how you can help them?
00:12:25.304 --> 00:12:39.125
Yes, I think a number of the customers that we interact with they talk about their journey mapping exercises that they're doing so that they can impact the entire customer experience.
00:12:39.125 --> 00:12:44.618
And that's where, frankly, the whole browse part of the experience comes in.
00:12:44.618 --> 00:12:59.296
Because when people aren't sure what they're looking for or it's not a quick transactional buy, because when people aren't sure what they're looking for, or it's not a quick transactional buy, it's a larger, more luxury good or lifestyle choice that they're trying to make with a Caribbean cruise, for example.
00:12:59.296 --> 00:13:03.836
You know it is that experience, so that they can understand.
00:13:03.836 --> 00:13:11.115
You know what is that experience going to be when they step onto the ship, what are the different ways they can impact their own experience?
00:13:11.115 --> 00:13:18.131
With different packages, drinks packages, meals packages, you know all sorts of elements like that.
00:13:18.131 --> 00:13:24.177
So, yeah, I mean we're an integral part of how a brand would show up for their customers.
00:13:26.087 --> 00:13:26.792
Oh, fantastic.
00:13:26.792 --> 00:13:34.407
And just looking at your website, you're in the far upper right-hand side of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for search and product discovery.
00:13:34.407 --> 00:13:36.868
Congratulations on that.
00:13:36.868 --> 00:13:39.269
So small feat.
00:13:39.269 --> 00:13:42.529
What are some of your plans to stay in that upper right-hand quadrant?
00:13:42.529 --> 00:13:45.610
What are you guys focused on the rest of this year and next?
00:13:46.611 --> 00:13:55.975
Sure, yes, we were very honored when the Gardner Magic Quadrant came out in May of 24 and placed us in the uppermost right hand corner, as you said.
00:13:55.975 --> 00:14:18.264
So we have a focus in terms of our innovation agenda around AI, as you would expect, in the core engine, and making sure that we are enhancing that customer experience by ensuring that they can get the very best relevance conversion if they're in an e-commerce world.
00:14:18.264 --> 00:14:34.379
And if they are in an e-commerce world, then you want the experience to be great, not just for the end users, but you also want it to be great for your own in-house users of the technology as well.
00:14:34.379 --> 00:14:46.384
So the merchandising studio is an active area of innovation for us, making merchandisers' lives easier and then overall, making sure that we have applicability for the broader swath of the market out there.
00:14:46.384 --> 00:14:47.951
So it's an exciting time.
00:14:49.206 --> 00:14:55.678
It is indeed, and AI, gen AI is only fueling that excitement and very practical use cases.
00:14:55.678 --> 00:15:00.875
Congratulations on all the success and thanks for taking the time out of your busy August.
00:15:00.875 --> 00:15:05.738
You know we're all trying to balance family and work and appreciate your taking the time.
00:15:05.738 --> 00:15:06.440
Thanks so much.
00:15:07.503 --> 00:15:09.183
You're more than welcome and thank you for inviting me, evan.
00:15:09.139 --> 00:15:11.201
Okay, take care, and thanks everyone for listening than welcome, and thank you for inviting me, evan.
00:15:11.201 --> 00:15:15.332
Okay, take care and thanks everyone for listening and watching and until next time.
00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:00.841
for being here.
00:00:00.841 --> 00:00:11.830
Fascinating topic search, not what we think of typically in the enterprise, but a really relevant and important topic, particularly in this world of AI.
00:00:11.830 --> 00:00:16.291
Before that, maybe introduce yourself, your mission and the team at Algolia.
00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:18.321
Sure, absolutely so.
00:00:18.321 --> 00:00:19.182
Bernadette Nixon.
00:00:19.182 --> 00:00:36.887
I'm the CEO of Algolia and have been for just over four years now, and here at Algolia, we are an AI search company, and our purpose in life what makes us get up in the morning is enabling people to find what they're looking for without foraging.
00:00:39.014 --> 00:00:41.320
Well, that's a very simple mission statement.
00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:42.363
I love it.
00:00:42.363 --> 00:00:50.569
Maybe a little bit more color on some of the core problems and challenges your AI search solution is addressing in the enterprise.
00:00:52.152 --> 00:00:52.893
Yeah, for certain.
00:00:52.893 --> 00:00:56.768
So we have broad applicability.
00:00:56.768 --> 00:01:05.248
So we have the honor of serving about 17,000 customers in a broad range of verticals.
00:01:05.248 --> 00:01:15.075
Yes, so I would say that the top vertical that leverages us is the e-commerce space, or retail for omnichannel search.
00:01:15.075 --> 00:01:20.543
After that we have media companies that use us as well.
00:01:20.543 --> 00:01:34.930
As then, I would say our third largest vertical is other SaaS companies like ourselves that choose to embed us as search as they're building their own products instead of probably building it from scratch with open source.
00:01:35.320 --> 00:01:45.195
But the problem statement, no matter which vertical you're in, what you're trying to do is you're trying to enable people to find what they want.
00:01:45.195 --> 00:01:50.468
So, if you take the e-commerce use case, for example, everybody knows the search bar.
00:01:50.468 --> 00:02:02.180
If you bought anything online, then your highest intent moment as a company, as a brand, as a retailer, to capture somebody is when they're in the search bar, because that's when they have the highest intent.
00:02:02.180 --> 00:02:06.528
They know what they're looking for and you want, know, you want to convert them.
00:02:07.149 --> 00:02:14.455
But the interesting thing is that search actually powers a whole bunch of other stuff on a commercial on an e-com site, for example.
00:02:14.455 --> 00:02:18.067
So I'm looking to be inspired and find a new handbag.
00:02:18.067 --> 00:02:21.777
Well, I'm not going to be in the search bar.
00:02:21.777 --> 00:02:34.830
I'm going to be looking at their collections, their winter collection, their spring, maybe what's on sale, all of those pages they are merchandised, probably personalized to me, versus if you went on there to find something.
00:02:34.830 --> 00:02:47.483
And so all of that merchandising that is done on a collection page, on a product detail page, the recommendation carousels, all of that is also powered by search, whereas I don't think people think about that.
00:02:47.483 --> 00:02:48.766
They just think about the search bar.
00:02:48.766 --> 00:02:50.741
But it's so much more than that these days.
00:02:52.824 --> 00:03:00.484
Indeed, and AI and Gen AI has overwhelmed us all in the tech world, but it's also shaping the future of search.
00:03:00.484 --> 00:03:03.849
So what role do you see AI playing today?
00:03:03.849 --> 00:03:05.413
What role are you playing?
00:03:05.413 --> 00:03:06.354
And moving forward.
00:03:08.341 --> 00:03:15.104
Sure, because of that, it's a great time to be in search, because it's sort of on the tip of everybody's tongue what's new?
00:03:15.104 --> 00:03:17.411
What, in addition, can I do now?
00:03:17.411 --> 00:03:41.729
So AI plays a big role for us because we are the only search engine on the market that is end-to-end AI at every important layer of our technology, and so, for example, we've all been trained to search for blue top, hawaiian shirts, khaki trousers.
00:03:41.729 --> 00:03:43.394
That's keyword search.
00:03:43.394 --> 00:03:47.525
We've been sort of indoctrinated over the past 20-25 years to search like that.
00:03:47.525 --> 00:03:57.965
But it's, you know, with the advent of new technologies like chat, gpt, we are finding that people's the number of words that people are using in their search queries is is getting longer.
00:03:57.965 --> 00:04:01.272
Uh, and that's because we want to be able to search like we think.
00:04:01.621 --> 00:04:07.612
So I want an outfit for a summer wedding in Provence, france.
00:04:07.612 --> 00:04:10.407
You know that could be something that I would look for.
00:04:10.407 --> 00:04:17.329
Well, you know you need AI to be able to understand and intuit what I'm looking for.
00:04:17.329 --> 00:04:30.127
I'm going to be looking for a bright, summery outfit where there's probably not a lot of air conditioning, and something that's a bit fancy, because it's probably going to be a little bit upscale.
00:04:30.127 --> 00:04:33.944
So I don't put any of those things in my search query.
00:04:33.944 --> 00:04:57.591
But that's what AI is able to infer, and what we like to say here at Algolia is that the whole search market has really moved from purely matching keywords to really understanding, understanding my intent as the person that's searching, and then being able to understand that intent and present me with the best results and a whole bunch of other recommendations.
00:04:57.591 --> 00:05:08.024
If you bought this, then you're likely to want to buy this, or here are some other products that look similar, for example, and personalized recommendations for you.
00:05:08.084 --> 00:05:14.802
So AI is playing a big role in the search market today and I think that role will only increase.
00:05:14.802 --> 00:05:24.004
And if you think about generative AI, then I think where that's going to have the largest impact is with the discovery process.
00:05:24.004 --> 00:05:51.757
So more as you're browsing and as you're looking to search for something, maybe you can't find, you've done three or four searches and you've not clicked on anything in particular, and then you could have a generative, conversational shopping experience that could guide you and might be able to present you with buying guides, shopping guides or product comparisons to help you narrow down what you're looking for.
00:05:51.757 --> 00:05:53.228
Oh, you're looking for a TV.
00:05:53.228 --> 00:05:56.742
I see you haven't found anything that fits the bill yet.
00:05:56.742 --> 00:05:59.127
Are you looking for gaming or streaming?
00:05:59.127 --> 00:06:03.473
Oh, I'm looking for streaming, then you might want to consider these couple of options.
00:06:03.473 --> 00:06:18.367
So I think AI has a significant impact in search and I think Gen AI is also going to have a significant impact in the discovery or the browse part of what we do as part of a customer journey, for example.
00:06:19.809 --> 00:06:25.620
Well, great opportunity for online consumers and 17,000 plus enterprise customers.
00:06:25.620 --> 00:06:27.870
That's quite a customer base.
00:06:27.870 --> 00:06:32.685
What set you guys apart in this pretty crowded world of search and discovery?
00:06:34.247 --> 00:06:43.819
So, when we started, we started perfecting our art in the mobile space and going back to 2012, 2013, 2014,.
00:06:43.819 --> 00:06:52.391
Around that era and you know, I don't know about you, but my mobile phone didn't look, you know, quite like it does today with the power that I have available.
00:06:52.391 --> 00:06:58.226
So, as a consequence of that, we were always blazing fast from day one.
00:06:58.226 --> 00:07:08.370
So being fast is definitely one of the things that differentiates us, and you might say, well, fine, but didn't you crack that a long time ago?
00:07:08.370 --> 00:07:09.834
Why are you still talking about that?
00:07:09.834 --> 00:07:23.358
Because being fast in a world of AI is now, you know, a whole different ballgame that you also have to conquer, and I'm pleased to say we've been at it now a couple of years and at the core of our technology.
00:07:23.358 --> 00:07:25.973
I'm pleased to say that we have conquered that.
00:07:25.992 --> 00:07:39.100
So, being fast and also what I like to call global speed at scale so it's not just the 17,000 customers, but those 17,000 customers generate almost two trillion searches on our platform a year.
00:07:39.100 --> 00:07:43.387
Now, anything with a trillion sounds pretty good, but what does that really mean?
00:07:43.387 --> 00:07:56.766
Well, if you take I mean, forget Google for a moment but if you take the next five public search engines Bing, yahoo, baidu for China, yandex for Russia, duckduckgo for folks with privacy concerns.
00:07:56.766 --> 00:08:02.918
We have four times their combined entire volume on our platform in a year.
00:08:02.918 --> 00:08:13.315
So I would say global speed at scale and the speed, not just the speed of the search results, but the speed at which you can deploy and start using us.
00:08:13.315 --> 00:08:18.274
So, amongst other things, those are some of the things that set us apart.
00:08:20.117 --> 00:08:30.612
Fantastic and talk about your use in the enterprise for organizations, large organizations that might be globally distributed.
00:08:30.612 --> 00:08:39.197
How are they using you today and what are some of the values of not foraging, as you say, on intranets and other things for content?
00:08:46.524 --> 00:08:47.086
things for content.
00:08:47.086 --> 00:08:49.534
Sure, the part of the enterprise that we tend to be used in is for anybody that is customer facing.
00:08:49.534 --> 00:08:51.422
Now that could be in a retail setting.
00:08:51.422 --> 00:08:59.438
It could be in a financial services setting, whereby they're trying to establish whether Evan has all of the right.
00:08:59.438 --> 00:09:28.539
You know they need to cross sell too, so do you have all of the right financial products from you know a JP Morgan's Chase or a Morgan Stanley, for example and so their wealth managers could look at you, know what are you using product wise, and then they could be presented with the right information at the right time when it really counts and be able to present that information to you as a potential customer.
00:09:28.539 --> 00:09:44.761
So that's really not dealing with anything to do with online commerce, but it's to do with an individual who is still servicing a customer, and that's a really important segment for us, because we believe that speed is of the essence in those customer interactions.
00:09:46.745 --> 00:09:48.206
Yeah, no, it's absolutely true.
00:09:48.206 --> 00:09:54.212
I think we can all and have all experienced that firsthand Talk about your role in e-commerce.
00:09:54.212 --> 00:10:01.198
That's a big marketplace for you and things like APIs are taking off headless e-commerce.
00:10:01.198 --> 00:10:04.481
What other trends are you seeing there and how do you play into those?
00:10:05.943 --> 00:10:10.869
Sure In e-commerce in particular, although it's in other sectors as well.
00:10:10.869 --> 00:10:39.581
But it started off with a headless trend of disintermediating the front end experience from the back end stack, and now it's really evolved into composable architectures and we have been an API product since day one, been an API product since day one, and so we're an absolute shoo-in to anybody that is moving from more of a monolithic or an old tech stack into the composable world.
00:10:39.581 --> 00:10:40.825
That's really important.
00:10:40.825 --> 00:10:53.910
It enables you to change things on the front end for your customers, whether those are internal or external customers, and without having to go into the bowels of the back end.
00:10:53.910 --> 00:11:00.750
So being an API first product enables us to be ideal in that kind of situation.
00:11:00.830 --> 00:11:32.596
But the other interesting part about the composable movement is there are still some large enterprises out there that have the big monolithic stacks and although they have mentally made the decision they want to go composable, they know that that's going to be a multi-year journey because they may have so many different businesses or brands or countries or regions that they're servicing, and so search is a great way for those companies to really put their tip in or toe in the water, because it's easy to break search off.
00:11:32.596 --> 00:11:35.113
It impacts your customer experience.
00:11:35.113 --> 00:11:42.876
It impacts conversion if you're in e-commerce and it's very easy to plug us in, even to the older stacks.
00:11:42.876 --> 00:11:55.389
So I love it when there's a trend out there, when we can help customers win on the front end of that trend and when we can also help customers win, sort of trying to catch up to that trend, if you will.
00:11:56.965 --> 00:11:58.171
Oh, super interesting.
00:11:58.171 --> 00:12:04.277
So we've seen the trend towards a renewed focus on customer experience.
00:12:04.277 --> 00:12:12.556
Consumer experiences it's been nice to experience as an end user, but what are you seeing on the buyer side, the tech buyers?
00:12:12.556 --> 00:12:14.712
Does that filter down to your customers?
00:12:14.712 --> 00:12:23.537
Are they really doubling down on CX, and how has that affected your thinking about the product and how you can help them?
00:12:25.304 --> 00:12:39.125
Yes, I think a number of the customers that we interact with they talk about their journey mapping exercises that they're doing so that they can impact the entire customer experience.
00:12:39.125 --> 00:12:44.618
And that's where, frankly, the whole browse part of the experience comes in.
00:12:44.618 --> 00:12:59.296
Because when people aren't sure what they're looking for or it's not a quick transactional buy, because when people aren't sure what they're looking for, or it's not a quick transactional buy, it's a larger, more luxury good or lifestyle choice that they're trying to make with a Caribbean cruise, for example.
00:12:59.296 --> 00:13:03.836
You know it is that experience, so that they can understand.
00:13:03.836 --> 00:13:11.115
You know what is that experience going to be when they step onto the ship, what are the different ways they can impact their own experience?
00:13:11.115 --> 00:13:18.131
With different packages, drinks packages, meals packages, you know all sorts of elements like that.
00:13:18.131 --> 00:13:24.177
So, yeah, I mean we're an integral part of how a brand would show up for their customers.
00:13:26.087 --> 00:13:26.792
Oh, fantastic.
00:13:26.792 --> 00:13:34.407
And just looking at your website, you're in the far upper right-hand side of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for search and product discovery.
00:13:34.407 --> 00:13:36.868
Congratulations on that.
00:13:36.868 --> 00:13:39.269
So small feat.
00:13:39.269 --> 00:13:42.529
What are some of your plans to stay in that upper right-hand quadrant?
00:13:42.529 --> 00:13:45.610
What are you guys focused on the rest of this year and next?
00:13:46.611 --> 00:13:55.975
Sure, yes, we were very honored when the Gardner Magic Quadrant came out in May of 24 and placed us in the uppermost right hand corner, as you said.
00:13:55.975 --> 00:14:18.264
So we have a focus in terms of our innovation agenda around AI, as you would expect, in the core engine, and making sure that we are enhancing that customer experience by ensuring that they can get the very best relevance conversion if they're in an e-commerce world.
00:14:18.264 --> 00:14:34.379
And if they are in an e-commerce world, then you want the experience to be great, not just for the end users, but you also want it to be great for your own in-house users of the technology as well.
00:14:34.379 --> 00:14:46.384
So the merchandising studio is an active area of innovation for us, making merchandisers' lives easier and then overall, making sure that we have applicability for the broader swath of the market out there.
00:14:46.384 --> 00:14:47.951
So it's an exciting time.
00:14:49.206 --> 00:14:55.678
It is indeed, and AI, gen AI is only fueling that excitement and very practical use cases.
00:14:55.678 --> 00:15:00.875
Congratulations on all the success and thanks for taking the time out of your busy August.
00:15:00.875 --> 00:15:05.738
You know we're all trying to balance family and work and appreciate your taking the time.
00:15:05.738 --> 00:15:06.440
Thanks so much.
00:15:07.503 --> 00:15:09.183
You're more than welcome and thank you for inviting me, evan.
00:15:09.139 --> 00:15:11.201
Okay, take care, and thanks everyone for listening than welcome, and thank you for inviting me, evan.
00:15:11.201 --> 00:15:15.332
Okay, take care and thanks everyone for listening and watching and until next time.
SEARCH PAST EPISODES
Search past episodes of What's Up with Tech? .
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Evan Kirstel, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
EDIT
Thank you for helping to keep the podcast database up to date.
