Today, NetApp announces the general availability of AI Search for OpenSearch on the Instaclustr Managed Platform, giving you a simpler way to build intelligent, context‑aware search experiences on fully managed, open source infrastructure.

AI Search brings machine learning–powered capabilities—such as semantic search, hybrid search, and retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG)—directly into OpenSearch, without the complexity of managing software, infrastructure, or operations yourself.

Smarter search, without the complexity

Traditional search relies on exact keyword matching. AI Search goes further by understanding meaning and intent, enabling more relevant results for natural language and conversational queries.

With AI Search, you can:

  • Improve relevance by understanding context and related concepts
  • Support natural language and conversational search experiences
  • Search images and text simultaneously using multi-modal search
  • Build AI‑powered applications on top of your existing OpenSearch data

These capabilities are delivered using OpenSearch’s AI Search (formerly Neural Search) and ML Commons plugins, now fully supported in production on the Instaclustr Managed Platform.

How does it work?

AI Search provides all the components you need to connect large language models to your OpenSearch cluster. Here’s how AI Search pipeline works for OpenSearch:

  1. OpenSearch ingests data from your data source.
  2. OpenSearch generates vector embeddings on ingested data and stores them in a vector index.
  3. An LLM connector creates a persistent connection from your OpenSearch cluster to an externally hosted LLM (such as OpenAI or Amazon Bedrock).
  4. The OpenSearch cluster is now capable of AI Search and users can query data using techniques such as semantic, conversational, or multi-modal search for highly accurate and relevant results.

OpenSearch diagram

From public preview to use-case ready

Using AI Search in public preview—released in October 2025—you could deploy an AI Search cluster using built-in OpenSearch embedding models, enabling local semantic search capabilities.

Our general availability release expands this with the introduction of external LLM and embedding model services such as Amazon Bedrock and OpenAI. This opens a range of new use cases such as:

  • Enterprise data search: Leverage built-in RAG pipelines to retrieve organizational data and process it through a large language model (LLM), designed to deliver highly relevant and accurate reasoning and search results.
  • Intelligent E-commerce search: Utilize embedding and large language models to provide highly accurate search and personalized product recommendations.
  • Intelligent support chatbots: Deploy AI-powered chatbots that customers interact with in natural language via OpenSearch’s conversational search API’s, helping solve their enquiries using your organization’s support documentation.
  • AI-driven observability and security: Run telemetry or security events through an LLM to do root cause analysis, anomaly detection, and dashboard visualization.

Why NetApp Instaclustr?

Running AI‑powered search introduces new operational challenges—from managing models to monitoring performance. NetApp Instaclustr removes that burden by delivering AI Search as a fully managed capability.

You benefit from:

  • Managed operations for provisioning, scaling, and reliability
  • Multi‑cloud and on‑premises flexibility with consistent tooling
  • 24×7 expert support, backed by enterprise‑grade SLAs

“Our customers want powerful, trustworthy search without added operational complexity. AI Search on NetApp Instaclustr for OpenSearch makes intelligent search easier to adopt—backed by the scale, security, and reliability NetApp Instaclustr is known for.”

— Ben Slater, Vice President and General Manager, NetApp Instaclustr

Get started today

AI Search can be enabled on new or existing OpenSearch clusters running on the NetApp Instaclustr Managed Platform, with no additional fees beyond infrastructure usage.

Start your free trial today or contact NetApp Instaclustr Support if you’d like help in getting setup. Whether you’re improving enterprise knowledge search, enhancing product discovery, or building AI‑assisted applications, AI Search for OpenSearch on NetApp Instaclustr helps you move faster—with confidence.