How to Properly Test an AI Search Plugin Before Recommending It to a Client

You've found an AI search plugin for WooCommerce. The demo looks impressive. But before you recommend it to a client, you need to know it actually works — on their catalog, with their products, for their customers. Here's how to do that properly. The wrong way to test AI search Most developers test like this: Install plugin Search for a product by name It works → recommend to client The problem: keyword search also handles exact product name queries just fine. You're not testing AI. You're testing autocomplete. What you actually need to test AI semantic search earns its place when keyword search fails. So test the failure cases. Natural language queries "gift for someone who likes cooking" "something warm for winter evenings" "casual outfit for beach wedding" None of these contain product names. Keyword search returns zero results. Semantic search should find relevant products. Negations and constraints "wireless headphones not Apple" "moisturizer without fragrance" "laptop under $800