Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), the economic development agency of the Federal Republic of Germany, plays a key role in supporting German companies as they expand into international markets and in attracting foreign investment to Germany. By providing reliable market, industry, and legal insights across around 150 countries, GTAI helps businesses navigate complex global environments and make informed decisions. 

To support this mission, GTAI needed a more effective way to make its extensive knowledge base searchable. GTAI partnered with ]init[, a digital experience specialist, to improve search across its growing repository of specialized content. As part of the project, ]init[ provided its proprietary ]init[ AI Platform – a modular, enterprise-grade AI framework designed to orchestrate large language models, retrieval mechanisms, governance layers, and system integrations in a secure and scalable way.

With more than 30,000 pieces of specialized content covering global markets, industries, and regulatory frameworks, GTAI’s digital platform offers exceptional depth — but also growing complexity.

As the content base expanded, traditional keyword-based search made it increasingly difficult for users to quickly find relevant answers, understand context, or identify the right expert contacts. Improving search became essential to ensure that GTAI’s knowledge could be accessed efficiently and continue to deliver value at scale. 

To overcome the limitations of traditional site search, ]init[ worked with GTAI to design and implement an AI-powered, conversational search experience built on a structured content foundation within CoreMedia Content Management System. Content was prepared and organized specifically for AI processing, ensuring that the search only works with relevant, high-quality content objects and complements the existing index-based search experience. 

Users can now ask questions in natural language and receive accurate, context-aware answers that go beyond individual documents — guiding them to related information and relevant expert contacts. As a result, complex trade and investment research becomes faster, more intuitive, and more actionable.

Instead of relying on long filter lists or static keyword searches, the AI assistant guides users through a structured, dialogue-based process. By asking targeted follow-up questions — such as location, project purpose, development stage, or specific needs — it progressively refines the interaction to deliver precise, relevant results. This decision-tree-driven approach delivers tailored recommendations, including relevant programs, expert contacts, networks, and supporting resources, making complex trade and investment information accessible even to users without prior funding expertise.

Public-sector needs platforms that uphold governance, transparency, and compliance at every step. CoreMedia aligns with these requirements by providing: 

• Governance and content control to ensure that AI responses are based only on approved, authoritative information. 

• Transparency and traceability so it’s clear which sources and content objects contribute to AI results. 

• Enterprise-grade security and compliance that supports strict regulatory and data protection standards typical in public-sector environments. 

This focus on structured content, governance, and control makes CoreMedia particularly well suited for agencies like GTAI that must balance accessibility with accountability.

To ensure the AI search delivers reliable and up-to-date results, content freshness and quality were critical. Within CoreMedia CMS, new or updated content is passed to the indexer instantly, ensuring that changes are reflected immediately in search results. This approach eliminates the need for complex crawling solutions and significantly reduces maintenance effort. As a result, GTAI can ensure continuous availability of authoritative, current information - while keeping operational complexity and costs low.

With AI-powered search embedded into GTAI’s digital website, users can now access complex trade and investment information far more efficiently. Instead of navigating long result lists, they receive clear, context-aware answers that help them understand regulatory requirements, market conditions, and next steps more quickly. 

Combining conversational AI implemented by ]init[ with structured, up-to-date content from CoreMedia CMS, GTAI enables smoother research journeys and helps users move from information discovery to informed decision-making with greater confidence and speed.