> Markdown version of [/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1678-databases-in-the](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1678-databases-in-the). Every page supports `.md` or `Accept: text/markdown`. Links point to the HTML versions so they work for humans too. Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md).

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# Databases in the Agent Era


- **Event:** World Congress 2026 North America

## Description

We are entering a new era where AI agents are first-class users of data infrastructure.

These systems don’t behave like traditional applications. They operate in loops, branch workflows continuously, retry autonomously, and demand immediate access to real data. The result? A fundamental shift in how databases must be designed and operated.

In this talk, we’ll explore how agentic workloads are redefining database requirements, from latency expectations to isolation models, access control, and data privacy. We’ll look at why traditional staging environments and replication strategies struggle under this new pressure and how emerging patterns like copy-on-write branching and ephemeral environments change the game.

If you build backend systems, data platforms, or AI-driven applications, this talk will help you understand what “agent-ready” really means and how to design for it.

## Speaker

### [Monica Sarbu](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@monica-sarbu)

Founder and CEO of xata.io


## Related talks at this congress

- [AI Agents are Only as Smart as their Context: Building a Real-Time Context Engine at Intuit](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1736-ai-agents-are-only) — Bharat Patel
- [When Agents Became Users: Rearchitecting Identity and Permissions for AI at Scale](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1713-when-agents-became) — Yoav Gal, Dor Cohen
- [Beyond SQL Generation: How to Teach Agents What Your Database Actually Means](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1404-beyond-sql) — Kris Jenkins
- [Closing the Visibility Gap: Lessons from Safety Critical Agentic Systems](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-north-america/sessions/1408-closing-the) — Vivek Pandit

## Watch remotely

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## Links

- [Get tickets](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/world-congress-north-america/tickets)