Microsoft’s extending Postgres with AI. At this week’s Microsoft Build conference, they announced general availability for the azure_ai extension in Azure Database for PostgreSQL. (I really wish they’d simplify the naming on that product.) The examples they use focus on translation and sentiment analysis.

They’re adding automatic index tuning, too. Rather than thinking of it as a complete replacement for human database administrators, think of it as a free/cheap way to get performance tuning on smaller databases that normally wouldn’t get the time and attention of a full time DBA. That’s the way it works on the Azure SQL DB side (aka their cloud version of Microsoft SQL Server.)

They’re even running an online Postgres conference. POSETTE is June 11-13, free, online, and the schedule’s out now. It’s the artist formerly known as Citus Con. Expect a Microsoft marketing bias, of course, but still, more free events is a good thing.

This week’s links are Microsoft-focused, and I personally have a Microsoft-focused background. I’ve worked with SQL Server since the late 1990s, but I’m transitioning over towards Postgres now. I don’t want you to think that I’m going to be Microsoft-biased – folks who have followed me on the SQL Server side for a while will know that I’m anything but MS-biased, and in fact, I’ve been one of the loudest voices pointing out problems with the MS stack along the way.

I think that like any company, Microsoft does some stuff right and some stuff in a way that mystifies me. The same thing could be said for Amazon, another company I’m heavily invested in, skills-wise. I won’t be a mindless marketer for either of those companies here, but it’s naive to think they won’t have significant impacts on Postgres going forward.

I’m really excited for my first Postgres conference next week, PGconf.dev, to see how the developers themselves eye the big corporate elephants in the room. (Elephants, ha ha ho ho, no pun intended.)