Juan Loaiza is Oracle’s Executive Vice President of Database Technologies and a long-time innovator, having spent over 37 years at the company. Cloud Wars Founder Bob Evans spoke with Loaiza at the recent Oracle AI World event in Las Vegas. They discussed the power of AI-driven databases, the increasing value of data, and Oracle’s innovative, two-pronged product development and go-to-market strategy.
The Criticality of Databases
Evans started the discussion by asking Loaiza to explain why databases, amid the AI Revolution, are probably more important today than ever. “Data becomes more important,” says Loaiza. “Number one, you get more data. But also, part of what AI is going to do is make data much more accessible.”
“Today, to really get a lot of data, you have to know the language of databases,” continues Loaiza. “One of the amazing things that’s happening with AI is … it can translate English to this language of computers, the language of data — Structured Query Language [SQL].” Ultimately, this means that regular business users don’t have to learn SQL to access data. Instead, they can talk to a database using natural language.
AI-driven databases will also help drive better business outcomes. Oracle has infused AI into every part of the data and application stack. It has included this advanced functionality at every layer from a base level, enabling users to find data in any form, from documents to images, all the way up to complex data management and integration tasks.
“You can get direct answers. It can put complex data together. It can combine your private data with public data. It can search the internet, and it can answer questions that combine all these things.”
AI also helps application developers “It used to take days, months, years to build applications. Now it’s orders of magnitude faster … You can iterate much more quickly. That’s going to make data much more accessible, much more powerful.” Business users can get to the data much more directly without having to consult IT.
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AI-First Infrastructure
During AI World, Oracle launched Oracle AI Database 26ai. “We’ve renamed Oracle Database, AI Database. Why? Because we’ve taken our database product and put hundreds of AI capabilities on top. So, now it’s a native AI database,” says Loaiza.
Oracle also launched its Autonomous AI Lakehouse, expanding the database’s scope to include data lake reads and writes. The Autonomous AI Lakehouse leverages Apache Iceberg, an open table format that standardizes data storage and enables interoperability for reading and writing data across a wide range of platforms.
“AI for data just changes how you do things,” exclaims Evans. “I’d love to hear a little bit more from you on that … this engineering things to work together faster, better, and more simply for your customers.”
“That’s kind of been our philosophy for a number of years,” says Loaiza. “There’s a lot of capabilities in data, a lot of different data types, a lot of different kinds of workloads.” To address this, Oracle built an integrated platform that has all of the data types, all of the workloads and AI built-in — all on a common engine. As a result, customers get the same transactions, disaster recovery, and security.
To enhance customer trust in its AI Database, Oracle has integrated data privacy rules that govern who — or what — can access specific data, when, and how at the data layer. Each end user or AI agent can only view the information they are allowed to see.
A Two-Pronged Approach
Oracle has redefined its go-to-market strategy by enabling a dynamic interplay between its innovative technology products and the delivery methods used to bring them to customers. Evans asks Loaiza to explain how Oracle technology enables various deployment options for customers.
“We want to bring the technology to the customer, wherever they are. And different customers, different industries, have different requirements,” explains Loaiza.
Oracle has introduced AI database technology across multiple environments: on-premises, in the cloud, and in other hyperscalers including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. In addition, Oracle can even deliver AI-powered cloud capabilities directly to customer data centers.
“Unlike other cloud vendors … we can build an entire cloud region with all the capabilities in your own data center,” says Loaiza.
AI Revolution
In conclusion, Loaiza commented, “AI is giant, and the changes are amazing. I think it’s a spectacular time to be in technology because there is so much that was never even remotely possible before — suddenly now it’s not only possible, it’s easy. This is a revolution nothing like I’ve ever seen before.”
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