Shopify launched its AI-powered semantic search functionality in early 2024, giving Shopify Plus merchants more accurate and relevant search results. Shopify's semantic search reflects the growing use of AI in product discovery across e-commerce platforms.

Shopify’s native semantic search API is built directly into the GraphQL Storefront API via the search and predictive-search queries. According to Shopify, the tool analyzes text and image data associated with merchants’ products to better match them to customer search terms that retailers might not use themselves in keyword tagging. It interprets natural language intent, synonyms, and context using embedded AI-driven vectors.

While Shopify is not the only e-commerce platform to enhance search capabilities, its early innovation has encouraged other platforms to expand AI-powered semantic search, enabling retailers to better match products to how shoppers describe them. For instance, Fast Simon's product discovery platform has its own AI semantic search for Shopify brands.

Fast Simon has had a front-row view of how semantic search is changing product discovery and how shoppers find products online.

Zohar Gilad, co-founder and CEO of Fast Simon, believes that semantic search is a good thing and is becoming table stakes, just like keyword search did years ago.