[wolfium3]

I work in a company where ML has made a considerable difference to our bottom line (search component of an e-commerce site). When I joined the company, search was so bad, it was easier to just use google and include 'inurl:' to actually find products on the site. Now, years later, the builtin search actually gives you what you're looking for better than google does. (This is important because if you can't find something quickly you're more likely to shop elsewhere).

If you've seen "ML done right", you wouldn't use the word "crumbling".

That said - I won't deny ML is over-hyped. It works for very specific problems and in many cases the best solution is a non-ML one. Knowing when NOT to use ML is just as important as knowing when to use it.

[lloydatkinson]

Does ML really work for you here vs elastic search or other full text search?

[wolfium3]

I'm not 100% familiar with the details - there's a ML component that calculates some stuff to narrow the ES search down (like categories), then at the end there's another ML system that re-ranks things. (ES alone doesn't give the best results)