Studies show that employees can lose about 19% of their total work hours per week locating internal data. This search is often unsuccessful.
For companies with 1000 individuals, such inefficiencies may cost more than $5 million per year.
That is why AI enterprise search is one of the most popular AI tools in use today.
This guide will compare leading Enterprise search software from Thunai, Glean, Coveo, and Microsoft. Here’s what you need to know…
What is Enterprise Search Software?
Enterprise search is a kind of AI technology which provides an opportunity to look for data in all company systems through one interface.
In other words, instead of looking for necessary data in Google Drive, Sharepoint, Slack, Salesforce, Notion, Confluence, Jira, emails, or any internal database separately, an enterprise search indexes all these sources within one knowledge base.
In the age of modern technologies, enterprise search solutions employ AI, RAG, vector search, and semantic search to understand the user's intention.
For example, instead of searching:
"Sales onboarding PDF"
An AI enterprise search platform understands questions like:
- How do I onboard a new enterprise customer?
- Where is the latest pricing deck?
- Show all GDPR compliance documentation.
- What did the engineering team decide about API authentication?
The platform retrieves relevant documents, summarizes information, cites sources, and in many cases can automate actions through AI agents.
Comparison of Leading Enterprise Search Tools
Comparison of the Top Enterprise Search Software with regard to AI Capability, Integrations, Security, Pricing, and Use Cases.
1. Thunai
Best for AI-Powered Enterprise Search and Workflow Automation
Thunai is an AI-enabled platform for enterprise search that enables organizations to discover and automate workflows using a single platform. It integrates documents, emails, CRMs, knowledge bases, chats, videos, and other business applications in the Thunai Brain. Other than the functionality provided by an enterprise search tool, Thunai also provides voice, chat, and email agents powered by AI technology.
Pros
- Integration of enterprise search with AI workflow automation capabilities
- AI voice, chat, and email agents for performing end-to-end tasks
- Integrated with 50+ business applications and data sources
- Supports 150+ languages with enterprise-grade security (SOC 2, GDPR, ISO 27001)
Cons
- A relatively new platform compared to well-established enterprise search companies
- Advanced automation functionalities may need some setup and integration
Best for
Organizations seeking enterprise search software that does more than just discovery; automates business workflows with AI agents.
2. Glean
Best for Enterprise Knowledge Discovery
With Glean, the users can access information about enterprise apps using only one search bar. The examples of its enterprise apps are Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Jira, Salesforce, and Confluence. It applies artificial intelligence in order to customize the results.
Pros
- Semantically powered search by AI
- Good at personalization
- Integrates with 100+ enterprise applications
- Enterprise security and permissions
Cons
- Priced premium
- Not many features for workflow automation compared to AI agents
- Custom pricing can be costly for small organizations
Best for
Large enterprises who wish to have personalized workplace search across various business applications.
3. Coveo
Best for AI-Powered Customer Experience
Coveo assists organizations in boosting their searches on websites, e-commerce platforms, customer portals and knowledge bases. The software utilizes AI technology in order to provide relevant searches and recommendations.
Pros
- Good at providing relevant searches and recommendations using AI
- Effective e-commerce and customer support tools
- Great analytics and ROI reporting
Cons
- Complicated installation
- Costlier compared to most competitors
- Needs constant optimization in order to work well
Best for
Organizations interested in enhancing customer self-service, ecommerce search, and digital experience.
4. Elastic Enterprise Search
Best for Custom Enterprise Search Applications
Elastic Enterprise Search is perfect for businesses requiring an extremely flexible search engine. This solution leverages the capabilities of Elasticsearch in assisting developers in building searches for documents, websites, applications, and databases.
Pros
- Highly customizable search platform
- Powerful API ecosystem
- Excellent scalability for large datasets
- Supports structured and unstructured data
Cons
- Requires technical expertise
- No-code capabilities are limited
- Higher implementation effort than SaaS platforms
Ideal for
Developer-focused organizations building custom enterprise search solutions.
5. Algolia
Best for Website and Application Search
Algolia is a search engine for websites, ecommerce sites, SaaS, and mobile apps that uses AI to improve search relevancy and enable users to search easily and without delay.
Pros
- Extremely fast search performance
- Easy API integration
- Excellent developer documentation
- AI-powered relevance tuning
Cons
- Primarily designed for website and application search
- Limited enterprise knowledge management features
- Usage-based pricing can increase with scale
Best for
Businesses that need high-performance search for customer-facing websites and applications.
6. Google Cloud Search
Best for Google Workspace Organizations
Google Cloud Search is a platform that allows users to perform searches on Gmail, Drive, Docs, Calendar, Sites, and other applications under Google Workspace using Google's AI technology.
Pros
- Seamless Google Workspace integration
- Familiar Google search experience
- AI-powered relevance ranking
- Strong security and access controls
Cons
- Best suited for Google Workspace users
- Limited support for external enterprise systems
- Less workflow automation than AI agent platforms
Best for
Businesses that primarily operate within the Google Workspace ecosystem.
How to Choose Enterprise Search Software
- Goal: Search vs. Action: Is the answer in search results only, or do you require agents capable of automating the process for you?
- Data Mapping: Find out what sources you need (Slack, Salesforce, SharePoint, recordings), and make sure there are inbuilt connectors available.
- Security: Do you require item-level permission, single sign on, encryption and special certifications such as SOC 2, GDPR, ISO?
- Functionality validation: Semantic search, multimodal and Knowledge graph/personalization should be validated.
- ROI: Ask for dashboards to analyze queries, deflection, time savings and ROI; request A/B testing.
- TCO: Licensing, Implementation, Connector Development, Cost of Tuning.
- Pilot with Real Data: Conduct a scoped pilot using predefined KPIs.
Why Thunai Is Better: What Sets It Apart as an Enterprise Search Software
Thunai.AI vs Otter: Real-Time Response That Crushed It!
Thunai, as a platform, is more than a search tool. It is an AI brain or engine that turns a company's scattered knowledge into a set of specialized, automated AI agents.
This changes the main objective from information retrieval to workflow automation.
- The central part of the platform is the Thunai Brain. It is a self-learning knowledge center that takes in all types of company data. This includes documents, videos, audio files, and chat records.
- This Brain becomes the single information source for all the platform's agents. It allows them to act and automate workflows with speed and accuracy. This method is different from using a passive search bar. It helps create an active, agent-based business environment.
- An AI agent can do more than find a troubleshooting guide. It can guide a customer through a solution with real-time screen sharing.
- Then, Thunai can log the interaction in a CRM. This all happens without a person's involvement. Thunai is built to make this type of work possible now.
Want to see Thunai in action? Try it out for free!
How Thunai Enterprise Search Works
Thunai transforms scattered business data into a unified AI knowledge hub that powers enterprise search and workflow automation.
- Step 1: Connect Your Data
Sync documents, emails, chats, websites, videos, CRMs, and business apps into the Thunai Brain to create a single source of truth. - Step 2: Create AI Agents
Create your own AI voice, chat or email agents using your enterprise’s intelligence to respond to inquiries and perform tasks. - Step 3: Integrate Your Systems
Integrate Thunai with your CRM, helpdesk and other business systems for the AI agents to search and operate within them. - Step 4: Search, Automate and Scale
Roll out AI agents to your website, call center, or any other part of your business for instant responses and process automation.
Key Features of Thunai Enterprise Search
Thunai goes beyond enterprise search by combining AI-powered knowledge retrieval with workflow automation.
1. AI Voice Agent
Manages both incoming and outgoing calls; enables real-time screen sharing, booking appointments, and updates your CRM.
2. AI Email Agent
Automates the process of managing your emails by creating context-based replies, finding opportunities, and potential churn risks.
3. AI Sales Co-pilot
Helps you get real-time answers and solutions on handling objections, as well as updating CRM records during the sales process.
4. Enterprise Security & Multilingual Capabilities
Designed to be SOC 2, GDPR, and ISO 27001 compliant and has the ability to support 150+ languages.
FAQs for Enterprise Search Software
What is enterprise search software?
Enterprise search software allows workers to search through information stored in various company tools such as documents, chats, tickets, emails, and knowledge bases in one place.
How is enterprise search different from Google?
While general search engines search through publicly available data, enterprise search engines only index internal data that is available in the company.
Why would organizations require enterprise search software?
Enterprise search software is required by organizations in order to save time in their search for information, improve productivity, speed up the onboarding process, and make quick decisions.
What features should enterprise search software have?
These features include semantic search, proper connectors, permission-based access, analytics, personalization, and AI-powered answers.
