If you are looking forward to build AI-enabled applications on your own data, you’ll be excited to know that the Early Adopter Preview announced for Azure SQL DB on native vector capabilities is now available also for those who have data stored in Azure SQL Managed Instance!

Make sure to learn how to store and use vectors functions reading the original post here: Announcing EAP for Vector Support in Azure SQL Database and then fill out the participation form at the end of that post to ask to join the Early Adopter Preview.

Azure SQL Managed Instance is designed for customers looking to migrate a large number of apps from an on-premises or IaaS, self-built, or ISV provided environment to a fully managed PaaS cloud environment, with as low migration effort as possible.

In order to use the vector support you need to be using the “Always-up-to-date” update policy that provides access to all new SQL engine features as soon as they are available in Azure.

With the addition of native vector support it is now even easier to modernize existing application, by adding AI capabilities that take advantage of the precious data stored in Azure SQL, either via using the new VECTOR_DISTANCE function directly, or using libraries like LangChain, Semantic Kernel and similar.

On these subjects expect quite a lot of posts in the next weeks, so make sure to stay tuned to learn how to fully take advantage and the AI revolution that is happening!