AI Search Platform

The Search Platform That Powers AI

Delivering RAG at scale, with rapid, accurate results, is as challenging as it is transformative. An AI Search Platform unites classical search with AI to power agents, applications, and user queries with fast, precise results over billions of documents and massive, ever-changing datasets.

Watch Intro Video

The Backbone of AI: Why Retrieval Matters More Than Ever

Search was built for human speed: deliver a shortlist of ranked ordered results, let the user scan, interpret, and decide the best fit. AI operates at machine speed, enabling multi-step retrievals, vast context windows, and delivering answers in natural language, but without relying on human guidance for results. Users expect GenAI not just to return accurate results, but to do the heavy-lifting: answer a question, summarize research, or even solve a problem.

That shift demands a new foundation to deliver better answers, lower latency, and controlled costs at production scale.

GenAI Maturity Levels

Level 1

Conversational Q&A

“Answer my question”

Level 2

Deep Research

“Research this and report back”

Level 3

Agentic Systems

“Solve my problem”

Each step in GenAI maturity increases pressure on the retrieval layer for speed, scale, and accuracy.

The Challenge: Delivering Retrieval Accuracy at Scale

Vector databases made similarity search possible, allowing LLMs to ground their answers in vast unstructured datasets. But vector search alone isn’t enough. Production-grade AI search must also combine semantic, keyword, and metadata retrieval, apply machine-learned ranking, and manage constantly changing structured and unstructured data, all at scale, while keeping consumption costs under control.

When these capabilities are bolted together across separate systems, the cracks show quickly. Bandwidth limits, integration overhead, and shallow connections turn into bottlenecks and undermine accuracy, a critical weakness when users tend to trust AI outputs without question.

What is an AI Search Platform?

The AI Search Platform is a new class of infrastructure that makes retrieval smarter, faster, and more scalable by uniting classical search techniques with modern AI: vector and tensor search in embedding spaces, full-text search for precision, multi-step ranking and real-time inference, using machine-learned models and tensor math. It enables accurate search at machine speed with filtering and ranking to ensure only the most relevant answers surface instantly. The AI Search Platform is critical in simplifying the development and deployment of generative AI at every maturity level.

AI Search Platforms in the Enterprise

Mainstream data platforms, such as Snowflake and Postgres, now offer basic vector search capabilities. These features are “good enough” for entry-level GenAI chatbots and simple internal tasks, with the added benefit of working directly on centralized data. For customer-facing deep research or agentic AI, accuracy, scale, and speed are non-negotiable. Or where data resides in PDFs and other unstructured sources outside the warehouse, an AI Search Platform is essential.

For CIOs, this has created a clear split:

Basic enterprise GenAI: handled by incumbent platforms, suitable for simple, internal use.
Advanced enterprise GenAI: demanding, customer-facing use cases where only AI Search Platforms can keep pace.

Enterprises that embrace AI Search Platforms for these high-stakes use cases will set the pace in this new era. Search is no longer just a utility—it’s becoming the backbone of AI-driven business.

Vector Databases vs. Data Warehouses vs. AI Search Platforms

This table compares the three main approaches to delivering retrieval: vector databases, data warehouses with vector support, and AI Search Platforms. It highlights how their capabilities differ, and why only a full AI Search Platform can meet the performance, scale, and accuracy demands of production-grade generative AI.

View the full-size comparison table.

Ready to Unlock the Power of Generative AI?

Generative AI only delivers real business value when it’s built on the right foundation. Vespa.ai is the world’s first AI Search Platform, unifying vector, keyword, and structured retrieval with machine-learned ranking and real-time inference. Trusted by leaders like Perplexity, Spotify, and Yahoo, Vespa powers search, personalization, and recommendation, and delivers the speed, scale, and accuracy required for deep research, agentic AI, and customer-facing generative applications.

Talk to an Expert

Other Resources

Vespa AI Search Platform in 90 seconds

Get a high-level introduction to Vespa.ai. In just 90 seconds, you’ll understand how Vespa is positioned as an AI Search Platform built for performance, scalability, and accuracy—core requirements for powering modern AI-driven applications. Ideal for a quick orientation to what sets Vespa apart.

Watch the Video

BARC Research Report

This research note explores the emergence of versatile AI databases that support multi-model applications. Practitioners, data/AI leaders, and business leaders should read this report to understand this new platform option for supporting modern AI/ML initiatives.

Download Research Report

AI Automation

Streamline, optimize, and enhance business processes with the world’s most scalable AI Search Platform.

Enabling GenAI Enterprise Deployment with with RAG

This management guide outlines how businesses can deploy generative AI effectively, focusing on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to integrate private data for tailored, context-rich responses.

Read Manager's Guide