The Neo4j team has introduced the Cypher Query Optimizer, codenamed "Ronja", which is designed to improve query execution times by producing an optimized query plan. The optimizer works on read-only queries with a specific structure and performs several steps including converting the input query string into an abstract syntax tree, optimizing and normalizing the AST, creating a query graph from the normalized AST, creating a logical plan from the query graph, rewriting the logical plan, creating an execution plan from the logical plan, and executing the query using the execution plan. Ronja is particularly beneficial for queries containing multiple nodes that can be reached via indices and/or pattern predicates, resulting in significant improvements in execution times.