What should an AI agent do when a customer asks a broad question and there are hundreds of possible answers?
Imagine a prospective student asking: “What engineering programs are available?”
Attempting to describe hundreds of programs is unhelpful. Selecting only a handful too early risks overlooking the programs that may be the best fit.
A Search Guide for iterative discovery
We have developed two Airgentic capabilities for this challenge.
The first is a Search Guide agent that examines the initial results and leads the user through an iterative discovery process.
- When there are no results, it suggests practical ways to broaden the search.
- When there are too many, it groups the results and asks targeted questions to progressively narrow the selection.
- When there are only a few, it can compare the options, highlight key differences, and help identify the best fit.
Importantly, the agent is not limited to keyword search. It can use structured fields such as location, duration, cost, credential, delivery method, or any other information available within the catalogue.
Conversation connected to site search
The second capability connects the conversation directly to site search. At each stage, the agent can provide a link to the complete set of matching results, with the relevant search terms, filters and scopes already applied. Users can move seamlessly between personalised AI guidance and a traditional, filterable results interface.
The result is more than a chatbot answering questions. It becomes a guided decision-making experience that helps users confidently identify the options that best meet their needs.
The example here is higher education, but the same approach can work for any organisation with a substantial product or service catalogue.
- For customer service teams, it can reduce repetitive enquiries and help customers navigate complex choices independently.
- For sales teams, it can improve product discovery, uncover requirements, and guide people towards the right option without overwhelming them with a large catalogue or a rigid form.
Conversational AI and structured site search are particularly powerful when they work together. The AI does not replace the catalogue. It helps each customer find the right part of it.
