On September 27th, Bernhard Suhm will continue our conversation about Generative AI.

He will speak with us on Transforming Search Experiences with Semantic Search. The landscape of information retrieval has undergone a paradigm shift with the advent of semantic search technologies. Traditional keyword-based search methods often yielded inconsistent results, requiring users to navigate through extensive lists or documents to locate pertinent information, and familiarity with the jargon when searching specialized domains. This talk examines the transformative impact of semantic search and explores its subsequent developments. Semantic search, by leveraging natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, has significantly enhanced the relevance and accuracy of information retrieval. This technology is able to capture user intent, context, and the conceptual relationships between search terms and content. As a result, semantic search has markedly reduced the cognitive load on users, by delivering more relevant answers. The emergence of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT brought AI and semantic retrieval on everyone’s minds. Haven’t we all tinkered with them, and are amazed what they can do? Not only can they answer complex questions in a dialog, they give advice on how to proceed, they diagnose issues and help you troubleshoot, they even deliver code and build whole systems.

Bernhard Suhm Ph.D., Principal, USpeak AI, has been applying AI to improving user experiences and solving business challenges his whole career. Prior to working as an independent consultant, he drove adoption of machine learning, vector search, and generative AI as a product marketer at Elastic, promoting how these capabilities enable more automation in observability, additional layers of security, and improved search experiences. In prior roles, Bernhard was product owner of the Machine Learning toolbox at MathWorks, and developed AI-powered call analytics to improve caller experiences and the delivery of customer service, influencing the handling of 100Ms calls working with Fortune 100 companies. He received a PhD in Computer Science specializing in speech user interfaces from Karlsruhe University in Germany, learned the ropes of user-centered design at Carnegie Mellon University, and has presented on speech recognition, caller experience analysis, and machine learning.