AI in Production Meetup: Ranking Edition
💡 Before registering for this event, please read the note about event recording and photography at the end of the event details.
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Welcome to the Berlin AI Meetup by GetYourGuide 🚀
Curious about the practical implications of AI in the tech industry? Join us to learn how companies across the globe—and we at GetYourGuide—use AI in production.
In our next meetup, we're diving into ranking systems—a core component of many AI applications, such as recommendations, search or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). We've invited experts from the field to share how they design, build, and scale ranking models that power real-world products. Discover the strategies and lessons learned from turning ranking ideas into production-ready solutions.
This meetup is especially relevant for ML and AI practitioners, but we welcome anyone passionate about the field. Join us at our office in Prenzlauer Berg for insightful talks, pizza, drinks, and networking with Berlin’s AI community.
Schedule of the Meetup:
18:00 Doors open + Open Networking
18:30 Introduction to GetYourGuide
18:40 Talk #1: Building a Transformer-Based Ranking Model for Vector Search Retrieval at Zalando
19:10 Break
19:40 Talk #2: From Trees to Transformers: Our Journey Towards Deep Learning for Ranking
20:15 Raffle (5 min) + Open Networking
21:00 End
ℹ️ Meetup begin at 18:00. Please be mindful when arriving early. Doors will close at 19:00 and entry will not be permitted after this time.
Talk #1: Building a Transformer-Based Ranking Model for Vector Search Retrieval at Zalando
Speaker: Evgeny Labzin, Applied Science Lead @ Zalando SE
Uncover how Zalando is shaping the future of search with a powerful ranking system built for vector-space retrieval. This innovative solution, anchored by a transformer-based model, redefines how relevance is scored across millions of fashion items. Learn how the architecture was designed, how performance was validated through a robust offline evaluation framework, and what key insights emerged throughout the journey. Whether you’re building ranking systems or exploring transformer applications in real-world contexts, this session offers valuable lessons and practical strategies to take away.
Duration: 20 minutes + 10 minutes for Q&A
Talk #2: From Trees to Transformers: Our Journey Towards Deep Learning for Ranking
Speaker: Mihail Douhaniaris, Senior Data Scientist @ GetYourGuide
GetYourGuide's ranking system plays a key role in our mission to help travelers discover and book unforgettable experiences. Historically, we powered our ranking with an XGBoost-based system. However, as incremental improvements began to plateau, we decided to adopt Deep Learning.
In this talk, we'll share how, in just nine months, we iteratively migrated our ranking pipeline to a Deep Learning architecture—while maintaining tight latency and high-throughput requirements, and delivering significant business impact. You'll learn how we started with a minimal viable model and gradually increased its complexity. Along the way, we tested over 50 iterations offline and conducted more than 10 live A/B tests to validate the impact on our customers.
Duration: 20 minutes + 10 minutes for Q&A
Answers for the curious:
Who should join the meetup?
This meetup is dedicated to anyone who works with, studies or is interested in ML and AI. It's a fun and informal environment where we can learn from each other's experiences.
What's the deadline to register for the event?
Please register by 18:00, July 30th.
Can I bring a plus one?
Sure, that's totally fine. Just ensure to register them as well.
For any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Important note: Please be advised that this event will be recorded and photographed, and we will have a photographer on-site. If you prefer not to be included in any recordings or photographs, please do not hesitate to let us know during the event. Your comfort and privacy are important to us.