AlloyDB integrates vector embeddings, high-performance vector search, and natural language into a PostgreSQL-compatible database that runs anywhere.
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Overview
The ScaNN index uses the same search algorithm as Google Search and is based on 12 years of Google research. It performs advanced semantic search with up to 10x faster index creation, up to 4x faster vector search queries, and up to 10x faster filtered vector search queries than the standard PostgreSQL HNSW index. AlloyDB AI offers additional enhancements, such as parallel index build, index auto-maintenance, and enterprise-grade observability for vector indexes.
AlloyDB AI’s ScaNN index is deeply integrated with the PostgreSQL query planner to enable simple yet powerful queries across structured and unstructured data. You don’t need to deploy or learn a separate vector database, nor suffer the latency of trips across multiple systems. Adaptive filtering ensures that filters, joins, and vector indexes deliver optimal performance when used together.
Use AlloyDB AI to provide users and agents with accurate responses to natural language questions. With AlloyDB AI natural language you can overcome the ambiguity, flexibility, and security issues typically encountered in natural language interfaces. AlloyDB AI can disambiguate user questions and incorporate data from the schema, sample data, and other sources to increase accuracy. It also locks down access to unauthorized data.
Access Google’s Gemini models or other foundation models hosted on Vertex AI , and use model endpoint management to register model endpoints on any platform and call them from AlloyDB with a simple SQL function. Use retrieval augmented generation (RAG) to ground application responses in real-time context from the database without the need for complex glue code.
With AlloyDB AI query engine , you can use natural language in SQL queries to express filtering conditions and ranking criteria. The power of AI models brings reasoning and real-world knowledge to SQL queries, unlocking deep semantic insights from your enterprise data. You can generate vector embeddings, perform similarity searches, and invoke AI models within a single query.
Modularize and simplify your code with popular orchestration frameworks such as LangChain and LlamaIndex that make it easy to connect models, tools, and databases. Focus on your application's unique logic and let the framework manage common actions like loading a document, accessing a vector store, and reading chat history.
How It Works
AlloyDB AI processes vector and SQL queries within a single query engine inside the database. This eliminates data movement to separate systems. By calling AI models via a simple SQL function, you can build real-time, data-rich applications and agents with less latency and complexity.
Common Uses
For a good search experience, your website or app needs to understand the user’s intent, and can’t rely on exact keyword matches. AlloyDB’s hybrid search combines text search (“Pixel”) with semantic search (“I’m looking for that phone from Google”) to provide both precision and context. It applies powerful re-ranking and inline filtering directly on your live operational data, delivering accurate, relevant results and increasing click-through rates without you having to manage separate search systems.
For a good search experience, your website or app needs to understand the user’s intent, and can’t rely on exact keyword matches. AlloyDB’s hybrid search combines text search (“Pixel”) with semantic search (“I’m looking for that phone from Google”) to provide both precision and context. It applies powerful re-ranking and inline filtering directly on your live operational data, delivering accurate, relevant results and increasing click-through rates without you having to manage separate search systems.
Searching on multimodal data (text, images, video, and other content types) requires a high-performance vector database that contains your freshest data. AlloyDB automatically generates vector embeddings directly within the database using the AI model of your choice, eliminating the need for complex pipelines into other systems. It also offers automatic indexing, so your applications can deal with rapidly-changing data as it's written or updated.
Searching on multimodal data (text, images, video, and other content types) requires a high-performance vector database that contains your freshest data. AlloyDB automatically generates vector embeddings directly within the database using the AI model of your choice, eliminating the need for complex pipelines into other systems. It also offers automatic indexing, so your applications can deal with rapidly-changing data as it's written or updated.
Empower business users to get answers from your data by simply asking questions. AlloyDB’s natural language understanding accurately translates conversational queries into responses, even asking follow-up questions (“Did you mean departure or arrival time?”) if necessary. This democratizes data access, accelerates decision-making, and reduces the burden of incorporating natural language interfaces into applications and AI agents.
Empower business users to get answers from your data by simply asking questions. AlloyDB’s natural language understanding accurately translates conversational queries into responses, even asking follow-up questions (“Did you mean departure or arrival time?”) if necessary. This democratizes data access, accelerates decision-making, and reduces the burden of incorporating natural language interfaces into applications and AI agents.
Build and scale powerful agentic workflows with AlloyDB as the foundation. AlloyDB provides a scalable, high-availability architecture for an AI-ready, PostgreSQL-compatible relational database. Your agent can use Gemini to reason over your structured and unstructured enterprise data and use high-performance search, natural language processing, and pre-configured data integrations to create sophisticated AI-powered applications and conversational experiences.
Build and scale powerful agentic workflows with AlloyDB as the foundation. AlloyDB provides a scalable, high-availability architecture for an AI-ready, PostgreSQL-compatible relational database. Your agent can use Gemini to reason over your structured and unstructured enterprise data and use high-performance search, natural language processing, and pre-configured data integrations to create sophisticated AI-powered applications and conversational experiences.
Deploy a complete AI stack on-premises, at air-gapped environments, at the edge such as a retail store, or as part of a multicloud deployment. AlloyDB Omni is a downloadable edition of AlloyDB that runs anywhere, so you can maintain full data sovereignty while pairing your database with local foundation models. Your most sensitive data never leaves your network, giving you the control to build highly resilient and compliant custom AI solutions.
Deploy a complete AI stack on-premises, at air-gapped environments, at the edge such as a retail store, or as part of a multicloud deployment. AlloyDB Omni is a downloadable edition of AlloyDB that runs anywhere, so you can maintain full data sovereignty while pairing your database with local foundation models. Your most sensitive data never leaves your network, giving you the control to build highly resilient and compliant custom AI solutions.
Business Case
Search at Target is evolving into something far more dynamic – an intelligent, multimodal layer that helps guests connect with what they need, when and how they need it. With AlloyDB AI and Google Cloud’s rapidly evolving data and AI stack, we’re confident in our ability to stay ahead of guest expectations and deliver more personalized, delightful shopping moments every day.
Melissa Ludack, VP of Data Sciences, Target
Featured benefits
Accelerate generative AI development and time-to-market
Reduce your AI stack's cost and complexity
Build smarter, more responsive, and more relevant AI applications