Artificial intelligence is now everywhere, being used in various applications, and data is foundational to AI. To kick off season 4 of the Oracle Academy Tech Chat Podcast, Tirthankar Lahiri, Senior Vice President of Mission-Critical Data and AI Engines at Oracle, addresses the relationship between data and AI, and how they work together, in this special two-episode season premiere, AI for Data: When Data Meets Intelligence.
To begin, Tirthankar unravels the concept of vectors, an innovative AI feature built directly into Oracle Database. The audience hears firsthand how vector search can instantly find relevant information even in massive datasets—powering solutions such as image recognition, recommendation systems, and natural language understanding. He uses relatable examples of why vector search provides better answers to questions.
Why students would want to learn databases and SQL
A central message from Tirthankar’s session: understanding databases is essential for anyone aiming to thrive in tomorrow’s technology landscape. Regardless of whether a learner pursues AI, machine learning, data science, or app development, building a solid foundation of understanding how data is stored, retrieved, and managed is crucial.
He emphasized the importance of mastering SQL (Structured Query Language)—a vital skill for anyone working with data. Learning SQL opens doors not just to database management, but to more sophisticated roles in AI and analytics, where accessing the right data at the right time is often half the battle.
To close this two-episode season premiere, host Tyra Peirce announced new Oracle Academy resources for teaching and learning AI, including workshops and Oracle Academy Education Bytes. Members can sign in to their Member Hub to explore.
Listen to the complete podcast episodes here.