How AI Search Works
Also: meaning-based search
Semantic search matches content to a query by meaning and intent rather than exact keywords, using vector embeddings to compare concepts. It is why AI engines can pull your page for a question that does not contain your exact phrasing, and why writing for intent beats writing for keyword strings.
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Because semantic search compares meaning, near-synonyms and related concepts count. A page that clearly covers a topic can surface for many phrasings of the same intent.
This is the engine behind query fan-out and retrieval: sub-queries are matched to candidate passages by semantic similarity, not literal keyword overlap.
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How Does AI Search Work?Related terms