Reflections from Oracle AI World 2025: Innovation, Community, and the Road Ahead

Let me give you the skinny about Oracle AI World 2025—it was exactly what I needed.

This year has been rough personally, and I’ll be honest about that. But walking into the event venue in Las Vegas and reconnecting with so many outstanding people from the Oracle ACE community reminded me why I do what I do. These aren’t just colleagues—they’re friends, trusted partners, and some of the sharpest technical minds I’ve had the privilege to work alongside. Whether we were catching up over coffee or diving deep into technical sessions, those moments of genuine connection were invaluable. To everyone who took the time to say hello and share their experiences—thank you. Your expertise is invaluable, and these conversations energize me more than you know.

Now, let’s talk about what Oracle announced, because the technical innovations coming out of this event are game-changing for how we approach data and AI.

Oracle ACE Program: Building Tomorrow’s Leaders

If you’re looking to take the next step in your career and share your knowledge within the Oracle ecosystem, the Oracle ACE Apprentice program is worth exploring. This entry-level advocacy path is designed for anyone who wants to grow their professional profile and contribute to the community.

The ACE Apprentice level might be right for you if your organization uses Oracle technology and you want to start sharing your knowledge publicly, if you’re a technical expert who wants to build your professional profile, or if you’re a student or recent graduate looking to expand your skills and global network. What I appreciate about this program is that it meets people where they are—whether you’re already deep in Oracle tech or just getting started with always-free products for personal projects.

The Oracle community has always been one of its greatest strengths, and the ACE program continues that tradition of fostering knowledge sharing and collaborative growth.

Oracle Database 23ai Becomes Oracle Database 26ai: Leading the AI Revolution

Here’s the big one—Oracle Database 23ai is now Oracle Database 26ai, and this isn’t just a rebrand. Larry Ellison announced this transformation at AI World, emphasizing what Oracle has been building toward: architecting AI directly into the core of data management.

Let me break down what this means and why it matters.

Oracle AI Database 26ai replaces Oracle Database 23ai because the engineering teams have added so many AI innovations across AI Vector Search, Agentic AI, AI management, AI Data Development, AI Analytics, and AI App Development that it warranted this significant update. This is Oracle’s “AI for Data” vision coming to life—a next-generation AI-native database with AI capabilities baked into the entire data and development stack.

What makes this update remarkable:

The transition from 23ai to 26ai is the simplest database update in Oracle’s history. If you’re already running 23ai, you simply apply the October 2025 quarterly Release Update (RU version 23.26.0)—no complex upgrade, no application recertification needed. You can even apply this update in a rolling fashion if you’re running Real Application Clusters. If you’re on Oracle Database 19c or 21c, you can upgrade directly to 26ai without needing to stop at 23ai first.

For those on Autonomous Database, it gets even better—your 23ai Autonomous Databases will automatically update to 26ai Autonomous AI Databases. Copy that—no action required on your part.

The release numbering also got smarter. Oracle changed the scheme to make it crystal clear when you’re looking at a release:

• The first number stays “23” (since 26ai replaces 23ai)
• The second number indicates the year (26 for 2026)
• The third number marks the quarter (1, 2, 3, or 4)

So when you see version 23.26.1.0.0, you immediately know it’s the January 2026 release update.

Why this matters for the AI revolution:

Oracle AI Database 26ai architects AI into the core, making AI capabilities simple to learn and use while maintaining the mission-critical functionality Oracle is known for. The database now supports dynamic agentic AI workflows that combine private database data with public information to provide sophisticated answers and actions. Plus, advanced AI features like AI Vector Search are included at no additional charge.

Oracle has also implemented NIST-approved quantum-resistant algorithms to encrypt data-in-flight, and combined with existing quantum-resistant encryption for data-at-rest, Oracle AI Database is designed to prevent the “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks that quantum computers might enable in the future.

The platform is open and ubiquitous—supporting Apache Iceberg open table format, Model Context Protocol (MCP), industry-leading LLMs, popular agentic AI frameworks, and ONNX embedding models. And it’s available everywhere: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, on-premises on engineered systems like Exadata, and even in Oracle Database Free for developers.

Oracle is leading the way in showing us how AI and data work together, not as separate systems, but as an integrated platform where great AI needs—and gets—great data.

Oracle GoldenGate: The Right Tool to Accelerate the AI Revolution

Oracle GoldenGate has long been one of the most trusted real-time data fabric tools in the industry, and the announcements at AI World 2025 reinforce why it’s essential for organizations building AI-ready data platforms.

From what was shared at AI World and in the broader announcements, here are the key GoldenGate developments that will be impactful:

1. Certifications for Oracle AI Data Platform and Oracle Autonomous AI Lakehouse

GoldenGate is now certified to work seamlessly with Oracle’s new AI Data Platform and Autonomous AI Lakehouse. This means you can use GoldenGate’s industry-leading change data capture capabilities to feed data in real-time into these AI-optimized environments, eliminating ETL complexity and accelerating the time to insights.

2. New GoldenGate Knowledge Hub

Oracle launched a new GoldenGate Knowledge Hub—a centralized resource for documentation, best practices, and technical guidance. For those of us who’ve been deep in the trenches with GoldenGate implementations, having a well-organized knowledge base is going to save significant time and help teams execute more efficiently.

3. GoldenGate for MongoDB Migrations 26ai

The new GoldenGate for MongoDB Migrations 26ai is now available, expanding GoldenGate’s already impressive any-to-any integration capabilities. This is particularly valuable for organizations with heterogeneous data environments who need to move MongoDB data into Oracle databases or other targets with minimal disruption.

4. Enhanced Multicloud Architecture Support

GoldenGate continues to excel in multicloud scenarios. Whether you’re running workloads across OCI, AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, GoldenGate provides the data integration backbone that keeps everything synchronized in real-time. The reference architectures show how GoldenGate can be deployed in highly available configurations across multiple clouds while maintaining the performance and reliability mission-critical systems demand.

5. Integration with Oracle AI Database 26ai

With the launch of Oracle AI Database 26ai, GoldenGate now has tighter integration with the database’s AI capabilities. This includes support for vector data types, JSON Relational Duality Views, and GoldenGate Data Streams—enabling real-time, event-driven architectures that power modern AI applications.

6. Air-Gapped Replication with Oracle Network Security Groups

For organizations with strict security requirements, GoldenGate can now be deployed in Oracle Network Security Group (NSG) environments using air-gapped replication. This is huge for government, financial services, and healthcare organizations that need the highest levels of data isolation while still maintaining real-time replication.

7. GoldenGate Free

Oracle continues to offer GoldenGate Free, making this enterprise-grade replication technology accessible to developers, students, and organizations who want to build and test solutions without licensing costs. It’s the same powerful GoldenGate that enterprises rely on, packaged for ease of use and simple download.

Why OCI GoldenGate on Azure Is Going to Be Huge

Now, here’s something I’m particularly excited about—the general availability of OCI GoldenGate integration with Oracle Database@Azure.

For organizations that have made Azure their cloud platform of choice but still rely heavily on Oracle databases, this integration is transformative. You can now run OCI GoldenGate natively in Azure data centers and manage it through the Azure console, providing seamless real-time data synchronization between Oracle databases and Azure services like Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Databricks, Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure Event Hubs, and Microsoft Fabric.

What makes this particularly powerful:

• Minimal latency: Running GoldenGate natively in Azure alongside Oracle Database@Azure means your data replication happens with the lowest possible latency
• Unified management: Integration with Microsoft Entra ID provides seamless user access and management
• Real-time AI readiness: The combination of GoldenGate’s change data capture with Azure AI services and Microsoft Fabric creates a true real-time AI pipeline
• Enterprise-grade reliability: GoldenGate’s robust architecture ensures no data or transactions are lost, with bi-directional replication and automatic conflict detection and resolution

Organizations can now build modern data platforms that leverage Oracle’s database strengths alongside Azure’s analytics and AI capabilities—all with real-time data synchronization that makes the whole environment feel like a single, cohesive system.

The Azure integration also extends to Oracle Database Mirroring in OneLake, which is now in public preview. This capability introduces low-cost, low-latency mirroring of Oracle databases directly into Microsoft Fabric’s OneLake in Delta Lake–optimized format, eliminating complex ETL pipelines. Combined with GoldenGate’s real-time replication, this creates an incredibly powerful data platform for organizations committed to both Oracle and Microsoft technologies.

Mission Accomplished—And Looking Forward

Oracle AI World 2025 delivered on multiple fronts. The technical announcements—from Oracle AI Database 26ai’s revolutionary approach to integrating AI with data, to GoldenGate’s expanded capabilities and Azure integration—show Oracle is executing on a clear strategy to make AI accessible, practical, and enterprise-ready.

But beyond the technology, it was the people and conversations that made this event meaningful for me. The Oracle community continues to be one of the best in the industry, filled with professionals who are generous with their knowledge and committed to helping each other succeed.

As we head into 2026 (and yes, I still can’t believe it’s almost 2026—where did the time go?), the combination of Oracle AI Database 26ai and the enhanced GoldenGate platform gives us the tools we need to build AI-driven solutions that are both innovative and reliable. That’s the balance every organization is seeking, and Oracle is positioning itself to deliver exactly that.

What’s your assessment of these announcements? I’d love to hear how you’re thinking about integrating these technologies into your environment. Let’s coordinate—reach out and let’s discuss how we can leverage these innovations together.