United KingdomPublic sector2024 – ongoingGovernment Digital Service
GOV.UK site search with Vertex AI Search
GOV.UK used Vertex AI Search to retrieve and rank results for millions of monthly searches
Problem
People needed to find government information using their own wording. Search had to connect their queries with relevant services across GOV.UK.
Approach
Government Digital Service deployed Google's Vertex AI Search behind GOV.UK's search interface. Models interpreted query intent and ranked content using semantic similarity alongside other signals. GOV.UK also configured rules governing the priority of content types.
Results
Takeaway
The search combined model-based relevance with editorial ranking rules. Its reported traffic excluded users who declined analytics tracking.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Public sector
- Business function
- Customer service
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Recommendation and personalization
- Adoption
- Vendor solution
- Evidence
- Company's own claim
Sources
Source summaries
Government Digital Service documented production use of Vertex AI Search for retrieval and ranking. It reported tracked monthly search volume and explained that analytics did not capture every user.
Full details are in the original sources.
