Databases in the Agent Era

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.