Executive Summary
Artnet, the world’s leading online resource for the international art market, faced a significant challenge: making its vast database of over 16 million artworks easily discoverable for its 60 million users. The platform’s traditional keyword search couldn’t replicate the nuanced, conversational guidance of a human art advisor. Artnet, with Elastiq & Google Cloud, launched a GenAI Art Advisor. This AI agent transforms art discovery, offering personalized, intuitive journeys through multimodal search of its 16M+ artworks, serving 60M users.
Client Profile
Artnet is the leading online resource for buying, selling, and researching fine art. It offers a comprehensive database of auction results, galleries, and artist analytics, serving as the essential platform for collectors, dealers, and art enthusiasts worldwide.
Business Problem
Artnet faced a fundamental discovery challenge: users needed specific keywords for searches, which hindered the natural, emotion-driven way people discover art. The platform’s rigid search functionality couldn’t capture how art lovers typically explore—through feelings, aesthetics, and abstract concepts rather than precise terminology.
At scale, Artnet couldn’t replicate the personalized guidance of a human art advisor. The platform needed an intelligent system that could understand user intent—whether expressed through descriptive language (“I’m looking for something that feels peaceful“) or visual references—and guide users through its massive collection in a natural, conversational manner.
Elastiq Solution
Elastiq partnered with Artnet to deliver the AI Art Advisor powered by Gemini on Google Cloud Platform.
The conversational core understood natural language nuances, enabling complex queries like “Show me a rare 20th-century oil portrait of a sophisticated woman under $30k.” Using multimodal embeddings and vector search, the system interpreted semantic meaning and maintained context across multi-turn conversations.
Visual search capabilities allowed users to upload artwork photos and receive recommendations for similar pieces. The multimodal vector search surfaced relevant artwork while a conversational agent enabled follow-up interactions with results.
Elastiq engineered a robust backend with event-driven data pipelines for real-time artwork ingestion, infrastructure as code using Terraform, and automated CI/CD pipelines on Google Kubernetes Engine for global deployment.
Key technologies leveraged
- Vertex AI: Utilized Gemini models for advanced conversational understanding and Multimodal Embedding Models for combined text-and-image analysis.
- GKE Autopilot: Provided a serverless, scalable, and secure environment for the application containers.
- Elasticsearch: Powered the high-performance vector search required for finding semantic and visual similarity.
- Cloud Storage, Pub/Sub, and Terraform: Formed the backbone of the automated data ingestion and infrastructure management.
Results and Impact
The AI Art Advisor fundamentally transformed the Artnet user experience and set an industry benchmark for art discovery. GenAI democratized art expertise, providing every user access to specialized art advice previously available only through human experts.
The solution moved beyond rigid keyword searches to intuitive, conversational journeys, allowing users to explore art based on emotion, style, and visual inspiration. This rich, interactive experience increased overall platform engagement and enabled users to experience art like never before.
The fully automated, scalable platform empowered Artnet’s engineering teams to manage and innovate with speed and confidence, delivering operational excellence at global scale.
“Our partnership with Elastiq enabled us to pioneer a truly unique solution, the first of its kind in the world. The AI Art Advisor, powered by Google Cloud, is fundamentally redefining how our users connect with art. Elastiq’s deep expertise in Generative AI and their proven ability to build scalable, production-grade systems were instrumental in bringing this ambitious vision to our global audience.”
Quentin Rider, CTO, Artnet
Conclusion
By integrating Elastiq’s AI implementation expertise with the power of Google Cloud, Artnet has set a new industry standard for art discovery. The AI Art Advisor is a powerful example of how Generative AI can translate deep domain knowledge into an accessible, human-centric digital experience, turning a complex challenge into a competitive advantage.