Algolia has named Stephen Lynch as Chief Executive Officer, appointing the enterprise software executive to lead the company as AI-driven search and retrieval become more central to business applications. Lynch succeeds Bernadette Nixon, who stepped down from the CEO role at the end of December 2025 and will remain on Algolia’s Board of Directors. The company said the leadership change comes at a time when search is moving beyond a standalone software feature and becoming a core layer for generative AI, automated workflows, and real-time decision systems.
Algolia, which serves more than 18,000 businesses and processes about 1.75 trillion searches annually, is positioning itself to play a larger role in AI-native software infrastructure. Lynch joins Algolia with roughly two decades of experience in enterprise platforms, AI search, machine learning, and large-scale systems. Most recently, he served as General Manager and Executive Vice President of Enterprise at AlphaSense, where he helped expand the company’s reach to more than 6,000 organizations, including 88% of the S&P 100.
In a statement, Nixon said, “Stephen is a seasoned product leader and senior executive” with experience turning advanced AI capabilities into trusted enterprise platforms. Lynch said, I’m delighted to be joining at this moment of accelerating growth and opportunity, and excited to help define what comes next,” adding that retrieval is becoming a foundational technology.