What is Semantic search?
Retrieval that matches meaning rather than words - which matters because the asker does not know the document's vocabulary.
Semantic search represents a question and a document as positions in a space where nearness means similarity of meaning, then returns what is nearest. The practical consequence is that a question about retiring early can reach a clause about commutation of entitlement prior to the qualifying period, which no keyword index can do.
The trap is the other direction. A system that trusts nearness alone will confidently return a clause that is topically similar and governs a different category of person entirely - which is worse than returning nothing, because nothing prompts a second look and a wrong answer does not. Any serious implementation therefore has a second stage that checks each candidate against the actual question and discards what is close but wrong.
| On this | Semantic search | Keyword search |
|---|---|---|
| What it matches on | The meaning of the question | The exact terms typed |
| When the asker uses their own words | Still reaches the right document most of the time | Degrades sharply - roughly a third of the time on measured Arabic statutory text |
| Failure mode | A confidently wrong near-neighbour, unless refinement is added | Nothing found, which at least prompts a second look |
| What it needs from you | The permission model reconciled across repositories | Consistent terminology, which is the thing you do not have |
- When it is the right answer
- When the answer exists, is correct, and is not being found - and especially when the people asking are not the people who wrote the documents.
- The service line that delivers this
- Semantic Search
Someone asks about retiring early. The system returns something that reads like an answer - and it governs a different category of member entirely. Nobody catches it until the wrong expectation is already set.
Start here
If a term here is the one your board paper turns on, ask us about it.
We will send the entry, the evidence behind it, and the honest note about where it does not apply.
You get a reply within one working day, from the engineer who would do the work - not a sales sequence.