Provides usage guidelines that ensure effective and proper usage of natural language prompts for SQL generation to ensure an enhanced user experience.

Intended Use

This feature is intended for the generation and running of SQL queries resulting from user-provided natural language prompts. It automates what a user could do manually based on their schema metadata in combination with a large language model (LLM) of their choice.

While any prompt can be provided, including those that do not relate to the production of SQL query results, Select AI focuses on SQL query generation. Select AI enables submitting general requests with the chat action.

Prompt Augmentation Data

The database augments the user-specified prompt with database metadata to mitigate hallucinations from the LLM. The augmented prompt is then sent to the user-specified LLM to produce the query.

The database augments the prompt with schema metadata only. This metadata may include schema definitions, table and column comments, and content available from the data dictionary and catalog. For the purposes of SQL generation, the database does not provide table or view contents (actual row or column values) when augmenting the prompt.

The narrate action, however, does provide the result of the query, which may contain database data, to the user-specified LLM from which to generate natural language text describing the query results.

Using natural language to interact with your database data is now achievable with LLMs. This means you can use natural language, for example plain English, to query the database.

When you use Select AI, Autonomous Database manages the process of converting natural language into SQL. This means you can provide a natural language prompt instead of SQL code to interact with your data. Select AI serves as a productivity tool for SQL users and developers and enables non-expert SQL users to derive useful insights from their data, without having to understand data structures or technical languages.

Autonomous Database uses AI profiles to facilitate and configure access to an LLM and to setup for the generation of SQL statements from natural language prompts.

AI profiles include database objects that are the target for natural language queries. Metadata used from these targets can include database table names, column names, column data types, and comments. You create and configure AI profiles using the DBMS_CLOUD_AI.CREATE_PROFILE and DBMS_CLOUD_AI.SET_PROFILE procedures.

The following are required to run DBMS_CLOUD_AI:

• Access to an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure cloud account and to an Autonomous Database instance.
• A paid API account for a supported AI provider, one of:

  • OpenAI: To enable OpenAI to generate SQL from natural language prompts, obtain API keys from your OpenAI paid account.

    You can find your secret API key in your User settings.

  • Cohere: To enable Cohere to generate SQL from natural language prompts, obtain API keys from your Cohere paid account.

    Click Dashboard, and click API Keys on the left navigation. Copy the default API key or create another key. See API-Keys for more information.

  • Azure OpenAI Service: To enable Azure OpenAI Service to generate SQL from natural language prompts, configure and provide access to the AI provider.

    To use Azure OpenAI Service, perform the following steps:

    1. Obtain your secret API keys. You can find your API keys in the Resource Management section of your Azure portal. On your Azure OpenAI Service Resource page, click Keys and Endpoint. You can copy either KEY1 or KEY2.
    2. Create an Azure OpenAI Service resource and deploy a model: Create and deploy an Azure OpenAI Service resource.

       Tip:

       • Note the resource name and deployment name as those parameters are used to provide network access permission and creating your Azure OpenAI Service profile using the DBMS_CLOUD_AI.CREATE_PROFILE procedure.
       • To know more about rate limits for token per minute on a model, see Azure OpenAI Service quotas and limits.
    3. Allow access to Azure OpenAI Service:
       • You can use your secret API key to allow access to Azure OpenAI Service. To know more, see the example in Use AI Keyword to Enter Prompts.
• Network ACL privileges to access your external AI provider.
• A credential that provides access to the AI provider.

Describes the steps to use DBMS_CLOUD_AI.

grant execute on DBMS_CLOUD_AI to ADB_USER;

BEGIN  
    DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN.APPEND_HOST_ACE(
         host => 'api.openai.com',
         ace  => xs$ace_type(privilege_list => xs$name_list('http'),
                             principal_name => 'ADB_USER',
                             principal_type => xs_acl.ptype_db)
   );
END;
/

EXEC DBMS_CLOUD.CREATE_CREDENTIAL('OPENAI_CRED', 'OPENAI', 'your_api_token');

Describes the steps to create and enable an AI profile.

-- Create AI profile
--
SQL> BEGIN
  DBMS_CLOUD_AI.create_profile(
      'OPENAI',
      '{"provider": "openai",
        "credential_name": "OPENAI_CRED",
        "object_list": [{"owner": "SH", "name": "customers"},
                        {"owner": "SH", "name": "sales"},
                        {"owner": "SH", "name": "products"},
                        {"owner": "SH", "name": "countries"}]
       }');
END;
/
 
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
 
--
-- Enable AI profile in current session
--
SQL> EXEC DBMS_CLOUD_AI.set_profile('OPENAI');
 
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

Use AI as the keyword in a SELECT statement for interacting with the database using natural language prompts.

The AI keyword in a SELECT statement instructs the SQL execution engine to use the LLM identified in the active AI profile to process natural language and to generate SQL.

You can use the AI keyword in a query with Oracle clients such as SQL Developer, OML Notebooks, and third-party tools, to interact with database in natural language.

SELECT AI action natural_language_prompt

Definition of some of the terms used in Select AI feature are described.