Vector Isn't Enough: Hybrid Search & Retrieval — Jeff Vestal & James Williams, Elastic

Why watch

This hands-on Elastic workshop demonstrates why pure vector search alone is insufficient for agentic AI retrieval. It compares semantic search with BM25 keyword search, explains reciprocal rank fusion and linear combination scoring, and shows how to configure hybrid retrieval in Elasticsearch. Participants run queries in Dev Tools and Python notebooks to inspect rankings and combine both methods for better recall and precision.