Mercadona dumps algolia, bets on ai-powered search – a $900 gamble
Valencia, Spain – Mercadona, the Spanish supermarket giant, is shaking up its digital strategy with a bold move: building a completely bespoke search engine from scratch, ditching its previous reliance on the SaaS platform Algolia.
A $900 gamble: internal innovation takes center stage
The move, spearheaded by Mercadona Tech, leverages the power of artificial intelligence – specifically, Anthropic’s Claude Code agent – and a methodology dubbed ‘vibe coding’ to deliver a search experience significantly faster and cheaper. Initial results are impressive: a reported 85% improvement in search ranking quality and a complete eradication of ‘no results’ queries, formerly accounting for 4% of all searches.
“We’ve moved from paying between $9,000 and $15,000 per month to a cost of under $900,” reveals José Ramón Pérez Agüera, Director of Product and Engineering at Mercadona Tech. “That’s a 90% reduction, a stunning demonstration of the value of internal development.”
But Agüera is quick to temper the celebratory tone. “It’s not just a financial win; it’s a technological one,” he stresses. “We’ve processed 4.4 million searches weekly, fueled by AI that explored 479MB of data in days, instead of weeks – a time saving that fundamentally alters our operational capacity.”
The ‘vibe coding’ approach, championed by Agüera himself, is causing a stir within the tech industry. While some hail it as the future of software development, others dismiss it as a fleeting trend. “It’s like the Thermomix,” Agüera argues, “It didn’t destroy restaurants, but it fundamentally changed what someone without culinary training could achieve in their kitchen.”
However, Agüera insists the AI didn’t make all the decisions. “Twenty-nine technical choices were made by a team with significant experience – decisions the AI simply didn’t deem necessary,” he clarifies, highlighting a deliberate emphasis on human oversight.
The process wasn’t entirely a solo endeavor. While Agüera initially drove the initial definition of the searcher’s programming, he acknowledges the necessity of two senior programmers for final polishing and production readiness. His background speaks volumes: prior roles at Tuenti, Jobandtalent, Amazon, and McKinsey underscore a pragmatic and data-driven approach.
Mercadona’s digital commerce is already a significant driver, exceeding €1 billion in revenue in 2025 – a figure significantly outpacing the group's overall sales in Spain and Portugal. But the rapid growth of its e-commerce division suggests a future even more reliant on technological innovation.
“Velocity without direction leads you to a destination you didn’t intend,” Agüera warns. “Direction without discipline leads you to the correct outcome with a flawed system. Velocity without direction or discipline is precisely what senior engineers fear when they hear about ‘vibe coding.’”