For years, website search has been viewed as a basic function or a nice-to-have, rather than a strategic asset. Most of the time, they function ok - it exists. Since it rarely draws attention when it fails, it's often left unchanged.
But for many organisations, particularly those in the public sector, traditional website search is quietly failing the people who rely on it most.
As digital services expand, content estates grow, and user expectations rise, the limitations of legacy search functionality become harder to ignore. Online users don’t just want to go to a website and have to find information - they want access to answers, delivered quickly, clearly and in a way that works.
Most search bars are built on a very simple premise: match keywords to indexed pages and return a list of results. This approach hasn’t changed - ever.
So, what is the problem? Users have changed.
People don’t search as content creators write - they don’t know the indexed keywords. They search in plain language, they misspell words, and they use different terminology depending on their location. Sometimes they may even arrive at the website stressed and unsure of what they’re even looking for.
This is where traditional search begins to fail. It's expected that users need to adapt to the system, rather than the system adapting to the users. The results from this are all too familiar: long lists of loosely related pages, outdated content or no results at all.
Poor search doesn’t just frustrate users - it undermines trust. When a resident can’t find a bin collection date, a student can’t find building information, or a shopper can’t get through to customer service, they don’t blame the search tool - they blame the company. And when digital channels fail, the pressure flows into contact centres, face-to-face services, or, worse, social media.
This is especially true for those who rely on search functionality most:
Traditional search was never designed with these needs in mind.
Over time, websites tend to grow more complex as new services become available, different departments duplicate content, microsites emerge, and people forget about old pages. Legacy search tools lack the ability to understand context, user intent, or user journeys, and only surface content rather than providing answers.
This is where modern, agentic approaches to search start to matter.
Legacy search tools lack the ability to understand context, user intent, or service journeys. They surface content rather than providing answers. These tools also struggle to differentiate between guidance, transactions, policies, and updates, and cannot direct users towards the next best action.
Agent-Ex: Search was designed to address these challenges. Instead of serving merely as a passive index of pages, Agent-Ex: Search operates as an intelligent, conversational interface across your digital assets. It understands natural language, interprets user intent, and delivers direct, relevant responses - not just a list of links. Users can engage via text and voice in over 70 languages, making search more inclusive, accessible and human.
When search is driven by an agentic experience platform, the interaction fundamentally changes. Instead of asking users to figure things out for themselves, Agent-Ex: Search helps them:
For organisations of all kinds, this means fewer failed searches, reduced contact demand, and far better insight into what users are actually trying to do.
Traditional site search hasn’t failed because teams don’t care. It’s failed because expectations have moved faster than the tools can keep pace.
Search is often invisible when it works - but painfully obvious when it doesn’t. As more services move online, the cost of poor search only grows.
Agent-Ex: Search represents a shift away from keyword-matching and towards truly resident-centred discovery. It meets users where they are, understands what they mean, and helps them move forward with confidence.
Search should enhance your digital experience, not let you down.