Google is continuously working to enhance its database and analytics platforms, and its latest updates are focused on harnessing the power of generative AI. In an announcement, Google revealed that it is bringing the capabilities of its Gemini large language model (LLM) to its BigQuery analytics service. Additionally, the company is expanding its database capabilities for AI by introducing vector search support to all of its cloud databases.
Google believes that vector indexing and vector search should be a fundamental feature in any database in order to fully leverage the benefits of AI in the enterprise. As a result, every Google database is now equipped with vector support. While Google had already introduced vector support in some of its databases, it is now expanding this feature to other databases such as AlloyDB, Vertex AI Vector Search, Memorystore for Redis, CloudSQL, Spanner, Firestore, and Bigtable.
Adding support for vectors across all Google databases required a significant amount of engineering work. Each database has its own unique characteristics and nuances, so Google had to innovate on different work streams to ensure optimal performance and features for users. One important aspect of Google’s differentiation from other vendors is how it builds vector-capable indexes. The company has extensive experience in building these indexes at a large scale, as it has been using vector search capabilities internally for 12 years in its ad and search business units.
On the analytics side, Google is enhancing its BigQuery platform with support for its latest Gemini Pro models. This update unlocks new analytical scenarios and offers advanced capabilities such as enhanced summarization and sentiment extraction, classification, enrichment, and translation of structured and unstructured data. With this enhancement, users can now effectively work with unstructured data in enterprise data analytics.
Google’s continuous efforts to improve its database and analytics platforms demonstrate its commitment to empowering developers and organizations with the power of generative AI. By bringing the capabilities of Gemini and introducing vector support to its databases, Google is enabling users to make the most of AI technologies in their operations. With these updates, Google is positioning itself as a leader in providing robust and efficient solutions for data analysis and AI-driven insights.