Oracle's 26ai Database Targets Advanced Agentic AI

Oracle Unveils AI Database 26ai: A Leap Towards Agentic AI for Enterprises

Oracle has launched its latest long-term support database, AI Database 26ai, making it generally available to enterprises. This new iteration signifies a strategic shift, emphasizing agentic artificial intelligence use cases alongside existing generative AI capabilities. The update introduces several key features, including Select AI Agent, AI Private Agent Factory, and enhanced integration with Oracle’s Multi-Cloud Platform (MCP) servers, aiming to empower businesses with advanced automation and intelligent workflows.

Replacing the earlier Database 23c, which was rebranded as Database 23ai in 2024 after incorporating AI-driven application development features like vector search, the 26ai version is designed to be a foundational tool for the next generation of AI applications. Analysts highlight Oracle’s intent to position AI agents as integral components within the database environment, fostering a more sophisticated approach to enterprise data management and automation. This release underscores Oracle’s commitment to evolving its database offerings to meet the growing demands of complex AI deployments.

Empowering Enterprise Automation with Agentic AI

The core focus of AI Database 26ai is to move beyond mere generative AI, offering comprehensive support for agentic AI applications. This means providing enterprises with the necessary tools to construct and deploy intelligent agents and intricate agentic workflows, thereby significantly enhancing automation capabilities across various business functions. The inclusion of Select AI Agent stands out as a pivotal development in this regard.

Select AI Agent builds upon the functionality of Select AI, a feature introduced in Oracle Database in 2023 that allowed users to interact with data using natural language queries. However, Select AI Agent expands on this by serving as a robust framework within the database, enabling developers to build, deploy, and manage AI agents effectively. This framework is equipped with both pre-built, in-database tools and external integration options via REST APIs and MCP servers, offering flexibility for various development needs. Experts note that this represents Oracle’s sophisticated take on agent builder platforms, providing a professional-code experience tailored for developers to integrate database functions and contextual knowledge.

Beyond the developer-centric Select AI Agent, Oracle has also introduced the AI Private Agent Factory. This framework mirrors some of the capabilities of Select AI Agent but is specifically designed for non-technical users, catering to platform and security teams who require a no-code solution for deploying private, containerized agents in secure and controlled environments. This dual approach ensures that both technical and non-technical personnel can leverage agentic AI, facilitating broader adoption within organizations. Comparable offerings in the market, such as Snowflake’s managed MCP kits or Google’s ADK patterns for self-hosting agents, suggest a growing industry trend towards democratizing agent deployment.

Further bolstering its agentic use case support, AI Database 26ai incorporates Multi-Cloud Platform (MCP) server integration. This enables developers to create agents or agentic workflows that can seamlessly interact with the data stored within the database. Such direct interaction capability is crucial for agents needing to query data, analyze information, and provide accurate responses, thereby driving more intelligent and responsive applications. The comprehensive suite of features aims to provide a powerful platform for developing and deploying AI agents that can automate complex tasks and enhance decision-making processes across the enterprise.

Comprehensive Features and Robust Security

AI Database 26ai inherits and enhances a range of features from its predecessors while introducing new capabilities that solidify its position as a leading enterprise database solution. These features extend beyond the newly introduced agentic AI tools, covering data management, integration, and security. The database continues to support data annotations, which are essential for adding metadata and context to data, thereby improving its utility for AI and analytical workloads. Vector search, a crucial component for similarity searches and machine learning applications, remains a core offering, allowing for efficient retrieval of semantically similar data points.

The database also maintains its robust support for Exadata, Oracle’s high-performance database machine, ensuring optimal performance and scalability for demanding enterprise environments. Integration with Nvidia’s NeMo Retriever microservices further enhances the database’s AI capabilities, particularly in areas requiring advanced retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for large language models. These integrations facilitate more sophisticated data processing and analysis, enabling enterprises to derive deeper insights from their data. The combination of these features creates a powerful ecosystem for developing and deploying AI-driven applications that can handle vast amounts of data with efficiency and precision.

Security is a paramount concern for enterprise databases, and AI Database 26ai addresses this with several advanced mechanisms. The inclusion of SQL Firewall provides a critical layer of defense against unauthorized SQL activity and various injection attacks, safeguarding data integrity and preventing breaches. For comprehensive data protection, Zero Data Loss Cloud Protect is integrated, offering robust protection for on-premises Oracle databases against data loss and ransomware threats. This service leverages the Zero Data Loss Recovery Service to ensure continuous data availability and rapid recovery in the event of an incident.

Furthermore, AI Database 26ai incorporates state-of-the-art quantum algorithms for encrypting data both in transit and at rest. This forward-thinking approach to encryption aims to provide enhanced security against emerging threats, including those posed by quantum computing advancements, ensuring that sensitive enterprise data remains confidential and protected. These advanced security features are designed to meet the rigorous compliance and protection requirements of modern enterprises, providing peace of mind in an increasingly complex threat landscape.

Upgrade Path and Future Directions

For existing Oracle Database 23ai customers, the transition to the newly released 26ai version is designed to be streamlined and efficient. Oracle states that customers can upgrade simply by applying the October 2025 update, eliminating the need for a full database overhaul or re-certification of existing applications. This simplifies the adoption process, allowing enterprises to quickly leverage the new agentic AI capabilities and other enhancements without significant disruption to their operations.

Beyond its immediate features, AI Database 26ai also forms the foundational layer for Oracle’s new Autonomous AI Lakehouse. This integrated solution is designed to support Apache Iceberg, an open table format that enhances interoperability and data management across various data platforms. The Autonomous AI Lakehouse aims to provide a unified architecture for data warehousing, data lakes, and AI workloads, enabling enterprises to manage and analyze vast, diverse datasets more effectively.

The strategic emphasis on agentic AI within Database 26ai signals Oracle’s vision for the future of enterprise software. By making AI agents “first-class citizens” within the database, Oracle is paving the way for more autonomous and intelligent business processes. This evolution is set to transform how enterprises interact with their data, automate tasks, and derive value from complex information, ultimately driving greater efficiency and innovation across industries. The comprehensive suite of features, coupled with a clear upgrade path and future-proof architecture, positions AI Database 26ai as a significant advancement in the realm of enterprise databases and artificial intelligence.