Your shoppers describe what they want. Default WooCommerce search returns: 0 results.

“summer wedding guest dress”
“warm cotton sweater for winter”
“outfit for a first date”
“cozy loungewear for weekends”
“wireless headphones for running”

Every product she was looking for is on your store: light cotton midi dresses, cashmere pullovers, tailored blazers, oversized hoodies, sweat-resistant earbuds. Default search just couldn’t connect vague words to product names. She leaves. Sale lost.

AI Search fixes it. Semantic search that understands what customers mean, not just what they type. Same store, same theme, same checkout. Search just works.

Same queries with AI Search, products found:

✅ “summer wedding guest dress” Light midi wraps, pastel jumpsuits, formal linen sets
✅ “warm cotton sweater for winter” Merino pullovers, cable knits, cashmere blends
✅ “outfit for a first date” Blazers, tailored dresses, leather boots
✅ “cozy loungewear for weekends” Oversized hoodies, joggers, cotton sweatpants
✅ “wireless headphones for running” Sweat-resistant earbuds, sport-fit models

Not just WooCommerce. AI Search works on any WordPress site: blog posts, pages, documentation, directories, any public custom post type. Wherever visitors search, semantic matching finds what they meant.

Try it live before installing: wp-search.ai/demos runs this exact plugin on three sample stores. Type your own search, or a SKU, and see the traditional results next to the AI results, side by side:

Clothing store – users describe an occasion, not a product name
Bookstore – readers remember the theme, never the exact title
Electronics – model codes and specs, where exact SKU matching has to win
Live search dropdown – type in the box and watch results appear before you finish

Traditional Results First, AI Results After

AI Search never replaces the results your search already finds. It adds to them. Every search runs in three steps, in this order:

Exact matches: a query that matches a product SKU or an exact product title is always the first result.
Traditional keyword results: everything WordPress and WooCommerce search would normally find (products literally containing your search words) comes next, ranked by keyword relevance instead of publish date.
AI results: only below those. Semantic matches are added: products that mean the same thing even when they use different words.

So if a user searches for something that literally exists on your site, they see exactly what they would see without the plugin, just better ordered. The AI layer only ever extends the results with products the traditional search missed. Installing AI Search will not change or hide the results your customers already find today.

Search As You Type

Two optional blocks bring live results to your site, without sending your visitors to a results page first:

AI Search Box: a search field that shows results in a dropdown as the user types: thumbnail, product title and price on a single row.
AI Search Button: a search icon for your header or menu that opens a full-screen search overlay.

Both are Gutenberg blocks. Open any page, template or header in the editor, click the + button, search for “AI Search”, and place the one you want – there is nothing to configure to get started.

They follow the same “traditional first” rule as the results page: keyword and SKU matches appear instantly on every keystroke, and AI suggestions are added underneath when typing pauses.

Try the live search demo – three real catalogues, type anything you like.

This keeps your quota intact. Keystrokes cost nothing, only the pause triggers a single AI request. A ten-character search uses one embedding, not ten.

Both blocks read your theme’s own colours, fonts and corner radius, so they look like part of your site rather than something bolted on, on light and dark themes alike. They are fully keyboard and screen-reader accessible. And they are entirely optional: place one where you want it, or place none and nothing about your site changes.

Key Features

Search As You Type: Optional search box and search button blocks with a live results dropdown, keyword matches instantly, AI suggestions on pause.
WooCommerce Product Search: Full product catalog indexing, titles, short and long descriptions, SKUs, categories, tags, and product attributes (size, color, material, etc.). Pre-configured defaults so you can go live in minutes.
Understands Meaning, Not Just Keywords: Semantic search means “cozy winter sweater” matches your “merino wool pullover”. Long-tail and descriptive queries stop returning empty pages.
Traditional Results Are Never Lost: Keyword matches always rank above AI suggestions. The AI extends your search results. It never replaces them.
Cross-Lingual & Multilingual: Works with 100+ languages, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and more. International stores get consistent search quality across every language, and an English query can still match content in other languages.
SKU & Attribute Matching: Customers can search by SKU fragments, attribute values, or technical specs and still find the right product.
Smart Fallback System: 4-tier fallback ensures users never hit a zero-result page, if AI search finds nothing, standard WordPress search takes over automatically.
No OpenAI Account Required: Uses our free embedding service (up to 10,000 embeddings per site). Works out of the box for most stores.
Bring Your Own API Key: Optionally use your own OpenAI API key for unlimited indexing.
Bulk Embedding Generation: Index your entire existing catalog in one click, filtered by post type or category.
Quota Management: Real-time monitoring of AI service usage and limits (v1.14.0+).
Works Beyond Products Too: Same intelligent search for blog posts, pages, and any public custom post type.
ACF Compatible: Index Advanced Custom Fields data for deeper product metadata search.
Tunable Similarity Threshold: Fine-tune how strict or broad search results are, per store.
Intelligent Caching: Fast results with automatic local caching.

AI Search Works With Any WooCommerce Store

Fashion & apparel: “something flowy for a summer wedding” finds dresses; attribute-aware queries like “cotton breathable large” match by size and material
Beauty & skincare: “my skin looks tired” finds night creams and recovery oils; “gift for sensitive skin” finds hypoallergenic sets
Electronics: “wireless headphones for running” finds sweat-resistant earbuds; exact SKUs like WOO-HOOD-24 are always pinned first, no guessing
Home & garden: “cozy living room” finds rugs, lamps, throw pillows; “durable outdoor” finds weather-resistant furniture
Food & beverage: “healthy snacks for kids” finds low-sugar options across your catalogue
Books & media: readers remember themes, plots and moods, rarely exact titles: “coming-of-age novel set in Japan” finds what keyword search never would
B2B & wholesale: semantic queries like “cotton shirts bulk order” work the same way; your existing WooCommerce pricing rules and role-based visibility still apply
Knowledge bases & directories: long-tail help queries stop hitting empty pages; “how to reduce hosting costs” finds “cutting your server bill in half”

Works With The Plugins Your Store Already Uses

WooCommerce: products, variations, virtual products, categories, tags, brand taxonomy, product attributes (size, color, material, etc.)
ACF (Free and Pro): text, textarea, WYSIWYG, repeaters, and group fields; opt-in via the Custom Fields tab
Meta Box, Pods, JetEngine: text fields exposed through standard WordPress meta APIs are picked up automatically; more via the ai_search_embedding_content filter
WPML and Polylang: separate embeddings per language: a Portuguese query finds Portuguese products, not the English original
Page builders: Gutenberg native. Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder and Bricks content is indexed wherever it lands in post_content
Any WordPress theme: the plugin extends your existing search template; no theme changes needed

How It Works

Each product in your WooCommerce catalog is converted into a numeric “meaning fingerprint” (called an embedding) that captures its title, description, SKU, categories, tags, and attributes.
When a user searches, the plugin first pins exact SKU/title matches, then lists every traditional keyword match (what your search finds today), ranked by relevance.
The query then gets its own meaning fingerprint, which is compared against every product’s fingerprint.
The closest semantic matches are appended below the traditional results, extra products the keyword search missed, never replacements for it.
If nothing at all is found, a multi-tier fallback kicks in so users never hit an empty results page.

Embeddings are generated automatically when you publish or update products, no manual work after setup.

Learn More

Visit our website for documentation, demos, and examples:
https://wp-search.ai/?utm_source=wordpress.org&utm_medium=readme

Browse technical documentation, see live demos of the plugin in action, and learn best practices for AI-powered search.

Usage

Your existing WooCommerce search form (and the default WordPress search) are automatically upgraded, no theme or template changes required.
Manage settings, switch providers, and monitor quota via the AI Search menu in your WordPress admin.

External Service

This plugin connects with:

OpenAI Embeddings API: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/embeddings
Custom Node.js Embedding Service

Please read more here:
https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/embeddings

AI Search for WooCommerce – Semantic Search & Live-Search Block