There is a version of semantic search (RAG) that hair salons buy off a shelf and quietly stop using inside a month. Then there's the version that's wired into your real workflow, owned by a person on your team, and still in use a year later. We only build the second one.
Semantic search (RAG) that fits a hair salon's week, not the other way around.
Our goal is to give hair salons a three-day weekend, so people can spend more time with their families and the people they love :)
What semantic search (RAG) actually does
Search that understands intent, not just keywords. Your team types what they mean - and gets the right document, ticket, or product from across every system, with citations.
- 01 Indexes Drive, SharePoint, Notion, Slack, your CRM
- 02 Returns answers with source links - no hallucinations
- 03 Permissioned so staff only see what they should
- 04 Re-indexes nightly so results stay fresh
Built on: Pinecone Claude Postgres pgvector Vercel AI SDK
Without Kiwi Dynamics
With Kiwi Dynamics
What you actually get
Every engagement is scoped and quoted up front. This is what is in the box.
- A working pilot, in productionNot a prototype on someone's laptop. The first slice of semantic search (RAG) runs against real work within weeks.
- Your data stays yoursIt runs on your accounts and your tools. If we part ways you keep the system and everything in it.
- The workflow mapped before codeWe write down what good looks like for hair salons first, so nobody is guessing at handover.
- Support after it landsThe people who built it stay reachable when the business changes shape around it.
How semantic search (RAG) compares
The two things most businesses do instead, and where each one runs out.
| Hiring for it | An off-the-shelf tool | Kiwi Dynamics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fit to how you work | Fits perfectly, costs a salary | You bend your process to suit the tool | Built around the workflow you already run |
| Time to something useful | Immediate, and permanent | Quick to switch on, slow to make fit | A working slice in weeks, then hardened |
| Who owns the data | You do | The vendor, on the vendor's terms | You do, in your own accounts |
| When it breaks | That person sorts it, if they are in | A support queue and a ticket number | The people who built it |
| What it costs | A salary, every year, forever | Per seat, forever, used or not | Scoped and quoted up front |
What we keep hearing from NZ hair salons.
- Salons run on a fully booked chair, and every gap in the calendar is revenue that doesn't come back.
- Rebooking, no-show follow-ups, and client reminders are what keep a salon's calendar full without constant manual chasing.
How we build semantic search (RAG) for hair salons.
We scope narrow, ship a working pilot, then harden it into production. The first slice is the highest-leverage workflow for a hair salon business, so value lands before the build is finished. AI search over your data.
Talk to usHow the work runs
- Find the one workflowWe look for the job costing hair salons the most hours or the most leads, and deliberately ignore the rest for now.
- Ship a working sliceA narrow version goes into production in weeks, against real work, so the value shows up before the build is finished.
- Prove it, then widenWe measure it against what the work cost before. If it does not pay for itself, we say so rather than scaling it.
- Harden and hand overLogging, fallbacks and a real handover, so it keeps running when we are not in the room.
The outcome for hair salons
We'd call the engagement a success when hair salons are using the system without thinking about us. Average search time drops from 6 minutes to 12 seconds.
Not your typical AI agency.
Honest about what AI can and cannot do
Ships the one workflow that pays for itself
Hours given back, never the size of the invoice
*Every engagement is scoped and quoted up front. Results vary by workflow and business.
FAQ
How long does semantic search (RAG) take to ship for hair salons?
We aim for a working pilot inside 4-6 weeks - narrow scope, real hair salons data, measurable outcome. From there it's another 6-8 weeks of hardening before you'd consider it production. Full rollouts (multiple sites, multiple teams) typically land in 3-4 months.
Are there hidden costs we should plan for?
Three to know about: model/API spend (which we set up under your own account, not ours, so you see and control it), any new SaaS subscriptions we recommend, and your team's time during rollout. We surface all three in the quote so there are no surprises.
Do you have proof this works for hair salons?
Direct case study: Average search time drops from 6 minutes to 12 seconds. Happy to walk you through full numbers on a call.
Who owns the code and the model setup?
You do, on delivery. We deploy semantic search (RAG) into your own cloud account where possible, with the model setup, prompts, evals and integration code all checked into a repo you own. Pinecone sits in your account too - we don't operate it from ours.
The honest version of a sales call.
No deck. No discovery doc. Just whether this is worth building and what it would cost.
Talk to us about this
Tell us what you're trying to do and we'll reply with how we'd build it - no obligation.