Exploring Sitecore AI in Sitecore Content Hub: A Technical Deep Dive

The integration of Sitecore AI with Content Hub introduces advanced tools that streamline content creation, standardize brand messaging, and enhance asset visual search. Sitecore AI is a suite of artificial intelligence tools developed to integrate seamlessly within Sitecore’s ecosystem. Built on machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) models. Here, we dive into three core AI features: Brand Voice, Content Generation, and Visual Search, and how to configure and utilize them effectively.

Step-by-Step Guide to Using Sitecore AI in Content Hub

This guide will walk you through accessing and utilizing the three primary Sitecore AI features in Content Hub: Brand Voice, Content Generation, and Visual Search. As of now, Sitecore AI is in beta, with these foundational features available.

Getting Started: Navigating to Sitecore AI

1. Login to your Sitecore Content Hub instance.
2. Navigate to the Manage Page: From the menu, select Sitecore AI.
   
   
   
3. Access Sitecore AI Settings: This will open the Sitecore AI page, where you’ll see three main options: Brand Voice, Content Generation, and Visual Search. Let’s explore each of these features in detail.

Exploring Sitecore AI Features

1. Brand Voice: Consistent Tone Across Teams

When you select Brand Voice, you’ll see the following prompt: "Set up your brand voice for unified AI content generation across teams."

How It Works:

• Every time a team member uses Sitecore AI for content generation, this predefined voice will guide the tone, ensuring a consistent style across all content.
• For example, if your brand voice is defined as “friendly and confident,” this tone will be applied to all AI-generated content, enabling unified messaging.

Benefit: This feature is particularly useful for companies aiming to maintain brand consistency across various teams and channels without extensive manual editing.

2. Content Generation: AI Assistance in Authoring

The Content Generation feature in Sitecore AI, shown in the screenshot, uses Microsoft’s Open AI language tool to support content creation within the Sitecore Content Hub authoring experience.

When you enable this feature (as indicated by the toggle switch), it unlocks AI-powered assistance in content fields, allowing users to:

• Generate Content: Create or refine text by requesting AI suggestions.
• Adjust Tone and Style: Modify the tone, shorten content, or improve grammar.

Here’s an example of how it works:

1. Create a Content Type: For instance, create a blog post named “Test Content.”
2. Access AI Options: In fields like title, quote, or body, select the AI button to open a content generation popup.
3. Generate Content:
   • For the title, type a request like “write a sample blog title” and click Generate.
   • The AI generates a response, with options to Refresh, Copy, or Insert into the title field.
     

     

     

     
     
     
     
     
4. Repeat for Other Fields: Use the AI feature for the quote and body, and save your content.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   

   
   

   
   

Practical Application: This feature is perfect for quickly generating high-quality content, helping marketers and content creators improve efficiency and maintain tone without extensive editing.

3. Visual Search: AI-Enhanced Image Discovery

The Visual Search feature uses AI technology to enhance asset discoverability by analyzing vector embeddings, which allow assets to be searchable by visual similarity rather than just metadata.

Steps to Enable Visual Search:

1. In the Visual Search settings, enable the feature.
   
   
   
2. A popup will prompt you to select specific assets for processing. You can either choose a broad category like "All Assets" or refine by asset type. For example, in my case, I selected both AzureAssets (a custom type I created) and All Assets. This approach enables you to tailor the visual search processing to relevant asset groups, ensuring that Sitecore AI processes only the assets most aligned with your search needs.
   
   
   
   
3. Background Processing: The system processes selected assets in batches, embedding visual data to enhance search functionality. As shown in the image, each asset type (like images in BMP, GIF, and JPEG formats) undergoes processing, with progress tracked for each category. Once processed, the AI-assisted visual search feature becomes active on the Asset search and Asset details pages, allowing users to locate similar assets seamlessly.
   
   
   

Using Visual Search:

• Go to the Assets Page and select AI-enabled search.
  
  
  
• You can search for assets by image, description, or color. To use image-based search, upload an image and select Search using Image. This action applies the uploaded image in the Applied Filters section, as shown in the screenshot. Sitecore AI processes this filter with visual search technology, identifying and displaying visually similar assets in the results. This feature is particularly useful for quickly finding related images or assets with similar visual elements.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Real-World Use Case: This tool is essential for creative teams, allowing them to locate similar images quickly, saving time, and improving productivity in content creation.

Final Thoughts

Sitecore AI’s Brand Voice, Content Generation, and Visual Search features offer powerful tools for enhancing content creation, maintaining consistency, and improving asset management within Sitecore Content Hub. By utilizing these features, businesses can achieve a seamless, unified brand experience while enhancing productivity and efficiency. These tools enable teams to produce high-quality, on-brand content faster and manage assets more effectively, ultimately enriching the customer journey.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for more insights in the next blog. Until then, happy Sitecoring! 😊👋