AI agents

Tech Optimizer
July 7, 2025
Snowflake has acquired Crunchy Data, a Postgres database provider, during its recent conference. This follows Databricks' investment in the Postgres startup Neon. Postgres has been recognized as the “most wanted” database in Stack Overflow’s annual developer survey for two consecutive years. Neon, founded in 2021, offers a serverless open-source alternative to AWS Aurora Postgres with a decoupled compute and storage architecture. Databricks aims to enhance its capabilities in the AI database sector through this acquisition, noting that 80% of databases on Neon’s platform were generated by AI agents. Crunchy Data, established in 2012, focuses on security for organizations and uses 100% mainstream open-source software. Snowflake plans to introduce Snowflake Postgres, designed for mission-critical AI and transactional systems at an enterprise scale. Industry experts suggest that operational data stores (OLTP) are becoming increasingly important for AI applications.
Winsage
June 25, 2025
Microsoft has introduced a small language model named "Mu" to enhance AI agents in the Windows 11 Settings app. This model operates on Neural Processing Units (NPUs) and is designed to automate tasks on users' PCs with granted permissions. Mu was developed with attention to NPU memory constraints, ensuring efficient operation through NPU-optimized processes. The model aims for ultra-low latency, achieving response times under 500 milliseconds, and is integrated into the search box of the Settings app. Currently, AI agents powered by Mu are being tested among Windows Insiders, who can also explore an update to the Recall app.
Tech Optimizer
June 21, 2025
Reynold Xin, co-founder of Databricks, highlighted the outdated nature of online transaction processing (OLTP) databases, which have not evolved significantly since the 1990s and face issues like over-provisioning and performance challenges. Databricks is introducing Lakebase, a product that separates compute from storage to enhance the efficiency of transactional databases, particularly for AI applications. Lakebase allows for instantaneous branching of databases, significantly improving workflow efficiency. Built on open-source Postgres, it supports various open storage formats and offers a copy-on-write capability to reduce costs. The separation of compute and storage is essential as streaming data becomes more integral to enterprises, enabling scalability and timely insights. Databricks aims to manage the entire data lifecycle, ensuring data remains within its ecosystem for rapid reporting and analytics. The integration of Lakebase with existing infrastructure enhances developer experience and operational maturity. The architecture supports extensive experimentation at minimal cost, fostering innovation. As AI agents become more prevalent, the focus on data evaluation and reliability will grow, necessitating a deeper examination of model accuracy.
Tech Optimizer
June 17, 2025
Databricks acquired the serverless Postgres startup Neon for approximately billion and integrated this technology into its offerings, launching Databricks Lakebase, a new operational database designed for intelligent applications. Lakebase is a fully-managed Postgres database aimed at addressing the integration of operational and analytical data for AI workloads. It operates on PostgreSQL and allows developers to manage data applications without server infrastructure concerns. Databricks also introduced additional products, including Lakeflow Designer, a no-code ETL tool, Databricks One for easy access to data and AI capabilities, and Agent Bricks for automating the creation of customized AI agents.
Tech Optimizer
June 14, 2025
The integration of real-time data for AI applications is crucial, but traditional ETL processes can introduce latency and complexity. Open-source Postgres is a popular choice for developers, and Neon has developed an AI-driven approach to database creation. Databricks has launched Lakebase, a managed Postgres database, after acquiring Neon. Striim has expanded its Postgres offerings to facilitate high-throughput ingestion from Neon into Databricks for real-time analytics and enables rapid data delivery from legacy systems into Neon. This allows for seamless data flow for AI applications, including support for real-time ingestion, Change Data Capture (CDC), and event streaming from Apache Kafka. Striim's platform supports operational data replication from various traditional systems and upholds data governance with AI-driven PII detection. This expansion enhances partnerships with Databricks and supports real-time SQL Server data access.
Tech Optimizer
June 12, 2025
The demand for real-time data in artificial intelligence is increasing, but integrating data from legacy systems poses challenges due to traditional ETL pipelines that can introduce latency. Open-source Postgres is favored for operational needs, and Neon offers a new approach to database creation using AI agents. Databricks has launched Lakebase, a managed Postgres database for AI applications, after acquiring Neon. Striim has expanded its Postgres offerings to enable high-throughput data ingestion from Neon into Databricks for real-time analytics and supports rapid data delivery from legacy systems into Neon. Striim's platform allows real-time replication of operational data from various traditional systems to Neon, real-time ingestion into Databricks, and enhances generative AI applications with inline data enrichment. Alok Pareek from Striim highlighted the importance of this expansion for Postgres-native teams to build real-time AI architectures. Striim also supports Databricks Delta Lake and SQL2Fabric-X for real-time SQL Server data access. Striim's platform processes over 100 billion daily events with sub-second latency, aiding proactive decision-making.
Tech Optimizer
June 12, 2025
Databricks has launched Lakebase, a fully managed Postgres database, during the Data + AI Summit 2025. Lakebase is currently in public preview and integrates with Databricks' Data Intelligence Platform, targeting AI-driven application development. It introduces an operational layer to the lakehouse ecosystem, allowing developers to build AI applications on a multi-cloud platform. The database architecture, powered by Neon, separates compute from storage for independent scaling, ensuring low latency and high concurrency. Lakebase supports rapid deployment and a usage-based pricing model, and features include copy-on-write clones for development and testing. Databricks aims to create a new category in the database market with Lakebase, which is built on open-source Postgres and compatible with existing tools. The operational database market is valued at over 0 billion, and recent surveys indicate PostgreSQL's rising popularity among developers. The launch follows Snowflake's acquisition of Crunchy Data to enhance its Postgres offerings, indicating a trend towards PostgreSQL in the industry.
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