Natural Language Q&A in Optimizely CMS Using Azure OpenAI and AI Search

In Part 2, we integrated Azure AI Search with Azure Personalizer to build a smarter, user-focused experience in Optimizely CMS. We used ServiceAPI to send CMS content to Azure AI Search. In Part 3, we’ll take things a step further: enabling users to ask natural language questions and get AI-powered answers. But here’s the twist: instead of using ServiceAPI, this time we’ll explore how to query indexed content directly using Azure AI Search’s REST API.

Why Natural Language Q&A?

Sometimes users don’t know the exact keywords. They ask things like:

“How do I return a product?” “Can I book a demo?”

With OpenAI on Azure and the semantic capabilities of Azure AI Search, your website can now understand those queries and provide helpful, contextual responses.

Architecture Overview

1. CMS content is indexed by Azure AI Search (via ServiceAPI or crawler).
2. The search index is enriched with ...