WOBURN, MA / ACCESS Newswire / August 18, 2026 / Bridgeline Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLIN), a leader in AI-powered product discovery and eCommerce solutions, announced today the successful deployment of its HawkSearch AI platform for a major North American automotive eCommerce network. The implementation supports approximately 2.4 million product records and represents one of HawkSearch's largest OpenSearch deployments to date.

The customer selected HawkSearch's OpenSearch-based platform to modernize eCommerce search, improve indexing performance, enable real-time product updates, and establish the foundation for advanced AI-powered shopping experiences. The deployment includes Smart Search capabilities, Visual Search, Concept Search, AI-assisted merchandising tools, and personalized recommendations.

Enterprise-Scale AI Search Deployment

The deployment demonstrates HawkSearch's ability to support highly complex eCommerce environments at enterprise scale. The automotive eCommerce network manages approximately 2.4 million product records across a broad mix of automotive parts, accessories, equipment, and related product categories.

By upgrading from a legacy search infrastructure to HawkSearch OpenSearch, the customer gained enhanced scalability, real-time indexing capabilities, and access to future AI innovations across its eCommerce ecosystem.

Significant Performance Improvements

The implementation delivered substantial operational and performance enhancements. Key improvements include:

• Reduced product indexing time from approximately 20 hours to approximately 3 hours.

• Achieved a 91% reduction in hierarchy facet response times, improving performance from nearly two seconds to approximately 175 milliseconds.

• Enabled real-time indexing capabilities to support faster catalog updates and merchandising workflows.

Multi-Phase Commerce Modernization Initiative

The OpenSearch deployment represents the first phase of a broader digital commerce modernization effort.

As part of Phase 2, the customer is actively migrating an additional 13 B2C ecommerce sites to HawkSearch OpenSearch and dedicated infrastructure. Following the B2C rollout, the customer plans to extend the modernization initiative across its B2B commerce platforms, further expanding HawkSearch's footprint throughout the organization.

Phase 3 is expected to focus on implementing HawkSearch Hybrid Search, combining semantic AI understanding with traditional keyword search to deliver more relevant product discovery experiences and improved conversion opportunities across the customer's growing portfolio of commerce sites.

"This deployment demonstrates the scalability of HawkSearch's AI-powered architecture for large enterprise catalogs," said Ari Kahn, Chief Executive Officer of Bridgeline. "Organizations are increasingly modernizing their eCommerce infrastructure to take advantage of AI-driven product discovery and shopping experiences. We continue to see growing demand for semantic search, conversational commerce, AI shopping assistants, and advanced merchandising capabilities as enterprises look to improve customer engagement and accelerate online revenue growth. This implementation highlights HawkSearch's ability to deliver measurable performance improvements today while creating a foundation for future AI innovation."

About Bridgeline
Bridgeline helps companies accelerate online revenue by improving traffic, conversion rates, and average order value through AI-powered commerce technology. Its HawkSearch platform delivers advanced search, personalization, and merchandising capabilities for B2B and B2C enterprises across high-growth industries.

Learn more at: www.bridgeline.com and www.hawksearch.com.

Contact:
Kelly Maltman
SVP of Marketing
Bridgeline Digital
press@bridgeline.com

SOURCE: Bridgeline Digital