Before Google was Google, it was known primarily for one thing - its search capabilities. Today's sprawling software giant began life as a search engine and has maintained its reputation as the best in that field ever since. Now, Google is making it easy for businesses to enjoy Google-quality searches within their organizations and on their websites. 

Vertex AI Search and Conversation brings the Google search experience to Workspace customers, helping their customers and employees navigate their digital assets more efficiently and effectively. Rolled out this summer, the platform has now been further refined to tailor it to business needs - making it more secure, compliant, and powerful.

What is Vertex AI?

Google launched Vertex AI to give developers an accessible AI tool to quickly and easily build out AI-powered features such as search functions and chat applications. 

Vertex AI Search and Conversation is designed to help your customers get the information they need in seconds - enhancing customer service by offering them a more personalized and efficient way of interacting with your website. 

Site visitors can enter their search terms and get instant results culled from large volumes of back-end data. These customers can then follow up with questions if they want to narrow their search further or receive prompts and suggestions based on previous activity. 

But it's not just customers who benefit. Employees can also use the Vertex search tool to search what they need from within your company's cloud storage, instantly locating the documents and files they need.

- UpCurve Cloud

Vertex in action

One of the early adopters of Vertex AI, Forbes, used the tech to launch its own custom-built search engine, Adelaide. 

Adelaide will help Forbes "provide personalized, relevant news content recommendations for its global readers leveraging generative AI," according to the group which says the search engine can comb through 12 months of content, using reader preferences to tweak searches in real-time.

Only available to select visitors, Adelaide will eventually be introduced to all 150 million Forbes readers. "As we look to the future, we are enabling our audiences to better understand how AI can be a tool for good and enhance their lives," said Vadim Supitskiy, Chief Digital and Information Officer, Forbes. "Adelaide is poised to revolutionize how Forbes audiences engage with news and media content, offering a more personalized and insightful experience from start to finish."

Fine-tuning searches for accuracy & compliance

A search engine is only as good as its results. Recognizing this, Google is refining Vertex search to increase its accuracy using data grounding. 

The platform offers two options so organizations can use data they're comfortable with - grounding in enterprise data or grounding in selected public datasets. This choice gives organizations more control and flexibility over their search function, relying on their own data, or opening it up to a wider range of reliable third-party sources. 

The second big change to Vertex is in the area of compliance. Pouring through company data - much of it collected from clients and customers - raises obvious privacy concerns. 

Google is working to alleviate those concerns with stronger protection around Vertex AI. The company has now introduced  Virtual Private Cloud Service Controls to prevent unauthorized employees from being able to access and use sensitive data.

Customer-managed Encryption Keys will also be available. Currently in preview mode, this tool allows customers to encrypt their own content, giving them more privacy and control over their data.

How to begin using Vertex AI

After a soft launch this summer, Vertex AI Search and Conversation is now generally available, meaning it is available for a free trial and purchase. New customers, or existing Workspace customers who are new to Vertex AI, are offered a $1,000 Google Cloud credit. 

If your organization needs help adopting Vertex AI or any of Google Cloud's features and applications, get in touch! Our team of Google-certified experts is ready to help you transform your IT infrastructure so you can improve productivity and maximize your resources. Contact us today to find out more or schedule a consultation.

 


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