A
Alexander Shumarski
Guest
If you’ve ever sat through a stakeholder call discussing how “people can’t find anything on our site,” this will sound familiar.
Organizations—particularly those with large, content-heavy websites—are feeling the growing pressure to deliver consumer-grade digital experiences. Visitors expect instant answers, tailored support and easy navigation. Meanwhile, internal teams are juggling content governance, compliance and platform sprawl.
This isn’t just an inconvenience.
That frustration drives up bounce rates, lowers engagement and quietly erodes ROI across marketing, support and digital initiatives.
Here’s the challenge: You’re not Amazon or Google. But your visitors still expect that level of experience.
And, as with any journey, there are more than one paths that can take you to your destination. Improving engagement, that is. Infact, we have discussed six strategies to improve content discoverability and user engagement in a another blog post.
Today, we are discussing how AI-powered retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) assistants—purpose-built for enterprise CMS platforms like Sitefinity—come into play to help you
Available to Sitefinity Cloud customers, the new AI Assistant brings GenAI-powered conversations directly to your site. And this isn’t just another chatbot bolted onto a page, requiring 24/7 staffing to handle requests.
At its core, it uses RAG architecture with Azure OpenAI’s GPT-4o mini model to surface highly relevant answers based on your existing CMS content—pages, documents, media files—without sending your users to third-party tools or generic results.
That means your visitors can ask, “What are the steps to apply for our SME financing package?” or “I have lost my airport parking ticket, what are my options?”—and the assistant will pull answers from your real, approved content.
It is a great way to reduce hallucinations and off-brand summaries. And the best thing about it? It requires no reauthoring.
Let’s unpack what that looks like in practice across different industries.
A credit union wants to increase product uptake among freelancers—a tricky demographic with specific needs. A visitor asks, “What’s the best savings plan for gig workers?” The assistant references internal product comparison sheets, published FAQs and compliance guidelines to guide visitors to a wealth of resources—with contextual links to open an account or chat with an advisor.
That simple interaction replaces what might have taken five clicks, trying site search, navigating backwards and forwards and even a customer service inquiry. It helps marketing teams improve conversion paths and lets advisors focus on qualified leads.
A prospective student is exploring data science programs. Instead of clicking through dozens of nested pages, they ask about course options and career outcomes. The assistant responds with program overviews, alumni testimonials and enrollment deadlines—all dynamically pulled from the Sitefinity content library.
This is no longer “chat support.” It’s guided content discovery at scale.
Buyers researching industrial equipment can ask detailed questions—“Which models support ISO standards?” or “Are there any case studies for automotive clients?”—and get answers sourced from technical manuals, product specs, or case studies already published to your site.
The result: fewer low-value emails to your sales team, more educated prospects and shorter lead cycles.
Agencies and member-driven organizations face a unique challenge: complex, policy-driven content combined with diverse user needs. A visitor looking for certification requirements or renewal guidelines can ask directly and the assistant pulls from the latest published resources—FAQs, forms, policy docs—without needing them to understand your site’s taxonomy or navigate through complex site structure.
Digital leaders—marketers, IT teams and CX strategists— agree that removing friction from content discovery using tools you already own should be their first choice. And doing it in a way that respects your brand, your governance structure and your tech stack.
The Sitefinity AI Assistant supports:
You’ve invested in building great content. But without strong discoverability, that content is underutilized. Infact, 90% of the content your have created will never get read. Think complex site structure, low attention span, internal search that was bolted-on as an aftertought…. The Sitefinity AI Assistant can help close those gaps.
Instead of relying on site visitors to dig through menus or static search pages, you’re giving them an intuitive entry point that fits how people now interact with digital experiences—conversational, context-aware, fast. Many of your prospects and future customers already love chat-style interactions. Perhaps this is one of the reason that traditional search engines are starting to feel the heat and facing serious competition.
You also get:
Here’s where things get technical—but in a good way.
We did mention it earlier. The Sitefinity AI Assistant isn’t some bolt-on that needs complex APIs or data pipelines. It works natively within Sitefinity Cloud (v15.2+), with no backend overhauls or external systems to manage.
Out of the box, you get:
You deploy it via an ASP.NET Core widget. Setup takes hours, not weeks. Your existing content structure remains intact and the assistant just... works.
No scraping. No reindexing. No external services leaking your content.
And because you control the content pool, you also control tone, compliance and brand alignment.
Metrics that matter go beyond “number of chats.” Here’s what your teams should track:
You’ll also be able to monitor assistant-specific KPIs in the new Sitefinity admin panel: what users ask for, what content gets shown, what queries fail and what needs improving. Pair that with the insights that our Customer Data Platform provides about content consumption and attribution and you will be in a good spot to answer some otherwise uneasy questions about KPI’s you might be tracking.
Let’s be blunt: doing nothing has a cost.
And no, static search bars and FAQ pages won’t cut it. Users want answers, not navigation exercises or someone’s idea about how UX should work.
The Sitefinity AI Assistant is available now for Sitefinity Cloud customers on version 15.2 or higher.
If your organization is:
…then this assistant is worth exploring.
Adding AI aimlessly won’t deliver value. What matters is choosing the right AI, applying it strategically and unlocking real business impact—so your content can finally pull its weight.
Ask yourself (or your team):
Then imagine if they could just ask—and get the right answer instantly.
Let’s talk about how the Sitefinity AI Assistant can make that possible.
Continue reading...
Organizations—particularly those with large, content-heavy websites—are feeling the growing pressure to deliver consumer-grade digital experiences. Visitors expect instant answers, tailored support and easy navigation. Meanwhile, internal teams are juggling content governance, compliance and platform sprawl.
This isn’t just an inconvenience.
- In 2024 alone, the cost of each visit to a corporate site rose by 9%,
- Content consumption dropped by 6.5%.
- Forty percent of sessions end in user frustration.
That frustration drives up bounce rates, lowers engagement and quietly erodes ROI across marketing, support and digital initiatives.
Here’s the challenge: You’re not Amazon or Google. But your visitors still expect that level of experience.
And, as with any journey, there are more than one paths that can take you to your destination. Improving engagement, that is. Infact, we have discussed six strategies to improve content discoverability and user engagement in a another blog post.
Today, we are discussing how AI-powered retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) assistants—purpose-built for enterprise CMS platforms like Sitefinity—come into play to help you
The AI Assistant that Knows Your Content (and Your Organization)
Available to Sitefinity Cloud customers, the new AI Assistant brings GenAI-powered conversations directly to your site. And this isn’t just another chatbot bolted onto a page, requiring 24/7 staffing to handle requests.
At its core, it uses RAG architecture with Azure OpenAI’s GPT-4o mini model to surface highly relevant answers based on your existing CMS content—pages, documents, media files—without sending your users to third-party tools or generic results.
That means your visitors can ask, “What are the steps to apply for our SME financing package?” or “I have lost my airport parking ticket, what are my options?”—and the assistant will pull answers from your real, approved content.
It is a great way to reduce hallucinations and off-brand summaries. And the best thing about it? It requires no reauthoring.
Let’s unpack what that looks like in practice across different industries.
Real-World Use Cases: Less Searching, More Doing
Financial Services
A credit union wants to increase product uptake among freelancers—a tricky demographic with specific needs. A visitor asks, “What’s the best savings plan for gig workers?” The assistant references internal product comparison sheets, published FAQs and compliance guidelines to guide visitors to a wealth of resources—with contextual links to open an account or chat with an advisor.
That simple interaction replaces what might have taken five clicks, trying site search, navigating backwards and forwards and even a customer service inquiry. It helps marketing teams improve conversion paths and lets advisors focus on qualified leads.
Higher Education
A prospective student is exploring data science programs. Instead of clicking through dozens of nested pages, they ask about course options and career outcomes. The assistant responds with program overviews, alumni testimonials and enrollment deadlines—all dynamically pulled from the Sitefinity content library.
This is no longer “chat support.” It’s guided content discovery at scale.
Manufacturing
Buyers researching industrial equipment can ask detailed questions—“Which models support ISO standards?” or “Are there any case studies for automotive clients?”—and get answers sourced from technical manuals, product specs, or case studies already published to your site.
The result: fewer low-value emails to your sales team, more educated prospects and shorter lead cycles.
Public Sector & Associations
Agencies and member-driven organizations face a unique challenge: complex, policy-driven content combined with diverse user needs. A visitor looking for certification requirements or renewal guidelines can ask directly and the assistant pulls from the latest published resources—FAQs, forms, policy docs—without needing them to understand your site’s taxonomy or navigate through complex site structure.
Why Intelligent AI Assistant Matter Now
Digital leaders—marketers, IT teams and CX strategists— agree that removing friction from content discovery using tools you already own should be their first choice. And doing it in a way that respects your brand, your governance structure and your tech stack.
The Sitefinity AI Assistant supports:
- Site-specific control – Pulls only from your approved content, not the open internet.
- Admin-side transparency – All interactions are logged and reviewable from your Sitefinity backend.
- Personalizable UX – Drop-in ASP.NET Core widget that can be customized to your branding.
- Region-based hosting in the US and EU.
- Multiple assistants per account – To serve different sites, sections, or audiences.
For Marketers: More Conversions, Less Rework
You’ve invested in building great content. But without strong discoverability, that content is underutilized. Infact, 90% of the content your have created will never get read. Think complex site structure, low attention span, internal search that was bolted-on as an aftertought…. The Sitefinity AI Assistant can help close those gaps.
Instead of relying on site visitors to dig through menus or static search pages, you’re giving them an intuitive entry point that fits how people now interact with digital experiences—conversational, context-aware, fast. Many of your prospects and future customers already love chat-style interactions. Perhaps this is one of the reason that traditional search engines are starting to feel the heat and facing serious competition.
You also get:
- Shorter time to engagement – People find what they need without friction.
- Increased page value – More content viewed per session, more intent captured.
- Content gap insights – Use conversation logs and analytics to understand what users can’t find, and fix it upstream.
For IT Teams: Secure, Low-Lift Deployment
Here’s where things get technical—but in a good way.
We did mention it earlier. The Sitefinity AI Assistant isn’t some bolt-on that needs complex APIs or data pipelines. It works natively within Sitefinity Cloud (v15.2+), with no backend overhauls or external systems to manage.
Out of the box, you get:
- Azure OpenAI GPT 4o-mini for fast, performant queries
- Elastic Vector DB for document similarity and semantic search
- Blob Storage and Azure Key Vault for secure content and credential management
- Cloudflare Gateway and Azure Monitoring for performance and uptime tracking
You deploy it via an ASP.NET Core widget. Setup takes hours, not weeks. Your existing content structure remains intact and the assistant just... works.
No scraping. No reindexing. No external services leaking your content.
And because you control the content pool, you also control tone, compliance and brand alignment.
What Success Looks Like
Metrics that matter go beyond “number of chats.” Here’s what your teams should track:
- Bounce rate reduction on key content-heavy pages
- Increased successful content queries (vs failed or zero-result queries)
- Lower support ticket volume for repeatable info
- Higher engagement with underperforming content
You’ll also be able to monitor assistant-specific KPIs in the new Sitefinity admin panel: what users ask for, what content gets shown, what queries fail and what needs improving. Pair that with the insights that our Customer Data Platform provides about content consumption and attribution and you will be in a good spot to answer some otherwise uneasy questions about KPI’s you might be tracking.
Risks of Standing Still
Let’s be blunt: doing nothing has a cost.
- Bounce rates will rise as users abandon sites that feel outdated.
- Support volumes will swell with basic, repeatable questions.
- Content ROI will erode as good material remains buried or unseen.
- AI expectations will shift elsewhere—to Gemini, Copilot, ChatGPT—taking the brand experience out of your hands.
And no, static search bars and FAQ pages won’t cut it. Users want answers, not navigation exercises or someone’s idea about how UX should work.
Ready to Start?
The Sitefinity AI Assistant is available now for Sitefinity Cloud customers on version 15.2 or higher.
If your organization is:
- Running a Sitefinity Cloud site
- Looking to improve self-service and reduce support load
- Interested in leveraging GenAI while maintaining control and governance
…then this assistant is worth exploring.
Adding AI aimlessly won’t deliver value. What matters is choosing the right AI, applying it strategically and unlocking real business impact—so your content can finally pull its weight.
Want to Learn More?
Ask yourself (or your team):
- What’s the most common question users ask on your site?
- How many clicks does it take to answer it?
- What happens if they don’t find it?
Then imagine if they could just ask—and get the right answer instantly.
Let’s talk about how the Sitefinity AI Assistant can make that possible.
Continue reading...