Oracle this week released an AI-driven update to its Oracle APEX low-code development platform that enables non-developers to execute vector queries in less than two minutes, without knowing SQL.
In fact, Mike Hichwa, senior vice president of software development at Oracle, demonstrated this capability for The New Stack by employing the APEX AI Assistant.
During the demonstration showcasing an application designed for New York City schools, Hichwa highlighted the tool’s AI-driven question answering, faceted search capabilities and data visualization.
This update includes AI features that can generate applications based on natural language descriptions from scratch. The platform is designed to assist developers in creating applications with AI components without requiring coding expertise.
APEX AI Assistant
Hichwa, who also is the designer, developer and creator of APEX, showed how the new APEX AI Assistant enables developers to create valid SQL statements from a natural language user prompt. APEX AI Assistant remembers SQL syntax, so developers don’t have to and automates the writing of SQL queries. It explains existing code and suggests code bug fixes that can be adopted with a simple click, he said.
“As a developer and someone who writes SQL every day, I know how challenging it can be to remember table names, column names, and syntax I don’t frequently use,” Hichwa explained in a statement. “Having an AI assistant to determine column names contextually, JOINS, and generate complex syntax is a real game changer.”
The new release. APEX 24.1, “dramatically changes the trajectory of APEX, it makes it substantially easier to create applications by having AI embedded in,” Hichwa told The New Stack. “But more importantly, you can introduce AI into your application so that your end users get the benefit of AI to do all sorts of things.”
Moreover, “With APEX AI Assistant, developers can now declare their intent using natural language and let APEX automatically generate the SQL needed to create applications,” said Bradley Shimmin, chief analyst for AI and Data Analytics at Omdia, said in a statement. “Basically, users can state ‘what’ they want the app to do, not ‘how’ to do it. In addition, APEX also brings this declarative style of development to the problem of debugging, helping to improve code or offering suggestions. This is all very well thought out and can be a transformative experience for developers.”
In addition to the APEX AI Assistant, APEX AI Assistant, which streamlines writing SQL queries and fixing code issues through natural language prompts. Other new APEX features include the Create App Assistant, which facilitates the creation of application blueprints by specifying desired attributes and functionalities using natural language prompts. Also newly introduced is the Conversational AI dialogs feature, which enables end users to engage with applications using natural language through a built-in interface.
Because Oracle’s APEX is a low-code solution, “the key value prop there is that you can develop applications substantially faster, but with substantially less code. So you’re capturing the intent, but not the implementation. It is not a code generator; it’s a model-driven execution engine,” Hichwa told The New Stack.
Bundled With the Oracle Database
Oracle APEX is bundled with Oracle Database and all Oracle Database services, including Oracle Autonomous Database.
Oracle officials claim that APEX’s declarative development approach enables developers to build and deploy mission-critical enterprise applications 20 times faster with 100 times less code. More than 850,000 developers have used APEX to build over 21 million applications, the company said.
Initially launched in 2004, APEX is a cost-effective solution since it comes at no cost, within the Oracle database and is also offered as a standalone cloud service, Hichwa said. It enables the development of applications with code by utilizing a model-driven execution engine instead of a code generator.
In addition, APEX now integrates with large language models (LLMs) to offer context-aware AI support in application development and user interactions.
“Oracle APEX 24.1 fundamentally revolutionizes low-code application development,” said Marc Staimer, senior analyst at theCUBE Research, in a statement. “APEX has always been a fantastic low code development platform… But now Oracle has taken it to extraordinary new heights with comprehensive GenAI LLM integration empowering even a novice developer to build world-class applications without writing a single line of SQL code.”
Oracle Code Assist
While APEX adds new GenAI capabilities, it differs from the Oracle Code Assist tool Oracle recently introduced.
Hichwa spelled out that APEX is a low-code application development platform used by customers who want to minimize the amount of code needed to create new applications. In addition, APEX is integrated with Oracle Database and inherits all its capabilities, including vectors and JSON Relational Duality Views, he noted.
Meanwhile, “Oracle Code Assist is a general-purpose code companion that incorporates AI to help development teams accelerate the creation of applications using a traditional development approach,” Hichwa told The New Stack. “In comparison, Oracle APEX provides an AI-powered assistant within the context of the Oracle APEX low-code application development environment. We want our customers to take advantage of generative AI capabilities regardless of application development methodology. Our customers often use APEX and traditional coding methods, depending on their development teams and organization.”
The post From English to SQL: Oracle APEX AI Bridges the Language Gap appeared first on The New Stack.
Oracle has added AI capabilities to its APEX low-code development platform, which enables users to use natural language to generate SQL statements.