Introduction
Vantage Discovery was built by a world class team that has been working on search for over 25 years at some of the greatest companies – but now everything is changing with AI. Through the use of AI, Vantage brings personalized search and discovery experiences to any data set and any customer context.
Every search box can now be as accessible as Internet search. But at the same time, more personal.
Solution Overview
The Vantage Discovery console is easy to use. You upload your data, select the LLM you want to use to semantically embed your data, and start delivering outstanding results to your customers via the Vantage search API. The SmartCat Frontend, Backend, and Machine Learning teams collaborated with Vantage Discovery’s engineering team to make it all possible and bring differentiated algorithms and the efficient system architecture to life.
Expertise and Approach
Our team’s expertise helped us develop such a sophisticated solution as a vector database, making rapid semantic search possible. As LLMs represent the cutting edge of AI technology, our genuine curiosity played a significant role in catching this wave quickly and leveraging that power to enable this change in the world of search.
During the development of the vector database, our team navigated various challenges in the field of databases and distributed computing, including sharding and replication, big data processing, and data security. Addressing these complexities required meticulous attention to detail at the lowest levels of abstraction to ensure the optimal performance and reliability of our database solution.
In the fast-paced startup environment, development kicked off in a very rapid manner. Within just 6 months, the team successfully transitioned to a test-driven development approach. This shift has significantly enhanced the reliability and organization of the development process.
Key Strategies
We redefined how businesses engage with data, using cutting-edge AI technologies. Our expertise lies in developing AI-driven semantic search engines utilizing Vector Databases, powered by LLM capabilities. Our groundbreaking innovation enhances customer experiences, boosts revenue, and optimizes operations.
- Scalability – The Vantage vector database was engineered to manage extensive datasets, with 100’s of millions of rows per table. This was accomplished through the implementation of sharding strategies and horizontal load distribution.
- Availability – Our objective was to ensure high availability of the data. This was accomplished by implementing replication, ensuring that multiple instances are always ready to serve customer data.
- Performance – Vantage relies on highly optimized code blocks, leveraging C++ and Rust for the most intensive data processing workloads.
- Resilience – The database incorporates strategies to quickly recover from any unforeseen circumstances, such as node and network failures.
These strategies collectively contribute to a reliable, high-performance database solution that meets the evolving needs of our users and supports their business objectives with confidence.
Results and Impact
Our collaborative efforts resulted in a step change improvement for Vantage Discovery customers search engines including:
- Enhanced Customer Experience:
- Shift from traditional keyword-based search to human-like experience for intuitive information retrieval and infinite filtering capabilities.
- Infinite Filtering: Searching information exactly as you think enables precise and customized filtering within the query itself.
- Increased Revenue Streams:
- Employing cutting-edge personalization ML algorithms and matching offerings with customer preferences, leading to increased conversion rates.
- Higher Customer Retention:
- Semantic search and personalized recommendations increasing the visibility of less popular products, keeping sellers engaged and boosting platform retention.
- Scalability:
- Ability to conduct semantic searching across billions of data points.
- Efficiency:
- Ability to optimize processes for faster, more precise outcomes – at scale.
In other words, the transition from keyword-based search to a more human-like experience with infinite filtering capabilities has revolutionized information retrieval.
Smart Tip
The technological advancement created by AI is bringing a significant leap forward in human efficiency and personalization, and it is possible that in the future you won’t be able to compete in the market with basic keyword search. If your business website has a basic keyword search, you should think about incorporating AI into its functionality.
Smart Fact
The team has developed multiple “bots” designed to continually stress the system with high loads. These bots are programmed to simulate client behavior, pushing the database to its limits. As a result, we proactively identify and address potential issues before they impact the customer experience, ensuring a smooth and reliable service at all times.
About Vantage Discovery
Vantage leadership has extensive experience working on search and their team counts 10-50 employees. Vantage Discovery is a software development company that provides an AI-powered search and content discovery platform, delivered as a service. Their platform uses AI to semantically understand proprietary data and seamlessly integrate it into existing search and content discovery surfaces through a simple API.
Driven by the groundbreaking development of LLMs and their foundational structure of embeddings, AI is set to reshape human-machine interactions. It will pave the way for unprecedented advancements and a step-change in human efficiency. But merely having powerful models isn’t enough. Real transformation comes from bridging these innovations with real-world applications delivered at scale. Vantage Discovery is that bridge.
Technologies Used
The project leveraged a variety of technologies and tools, including:
- Programming Languages: C++, Java, Python
- LLM Frameworks and Tools: OpenAI, HuggingFace
