AI-powered search is search that understands what your users mean, not just what they type.
It's the umbrella term for a set of capabilities built on top of OpenSearch that allow your application to return relevant results based on meaning, context, and intent, rather than relying solely on exact keyword matches.
For most of search's history, "better search" meant better keyword matching: smarter tokenization, synonym handling, boosting by recency or popularity. Those things still matter. But they all operate on the same basic assumption, which is that the words in a query will overlap with the words in your content. AI-powered search breaks that assumption. It can find a result even when none of the user's exact words appear in it, because it's comparing meaning rather than text.
What it's built on
AI-powered search in OpenSearch is powered by vector search, the ability to represent content and queries as mathematical coordinates and find results based on how close they are in meaning. On its own, that handles the semantic side of search well. Combined with traditional lexical search in a hybrid configuration, it handles both precision and meaning in a single query. That combination is what most modern search applications are moving toward.
What this means for your application
If your users search in natural language — descriptions, questions, concepts — AI-powered search gives them results that actually reflect what they were looking for, even when they struggle to find the right words. If your users also search by exact identifiers, SKUs, or specific terms, hybrid search ensures those queries still return precise results.
The practical effect is a search experience that feels smarter and more forgiving. Your search can meet your users where they are rather than requiring them to learn how to query your system correctly.
What Bonsai provides
Bonsai's vector-enabled clusters bring AI-powered search capabilities to all customers on Standard, Business, and Enterprise tier plans. The infrastructure is handled by Bonsai. The index design, field configuration, and query structure are your team's responsibility, but Bonsai provides recommended configurations and documentation to help you get it right. See Vector Search, Hybrid Search, and our setup guide to get started.
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