Oracle’s AI push

Oracle is pushing artificial intelligence on two fronts at once: the database that stores business data, and the software that runs finance, human resources, supply chains, and sales. (oracle.com) On April 9 in New York, Oracle said Oracle AI Database 26ai would add “Platinum-tier” and “Diamond-tier” availability options for mission-critical workloads, with disaster failover times typically under 30 seconds on Exadata for the Platinum tier. Oracle said online transaction processing applications can resume work up to 10 times faster after a computer failure, and pluggable database startup is up to two times faster. (oracle.com) The same day, Oracle expanded Fusion Agentic Applications into finance, supply chain, human resources, and customer experience inside its Fusion Cloud Applications suite. Oracle said the tools use teams of specialized artificial intelligence agents that can access enterprise data, workflows, approvals, permissions, and transaction context to carry out tasks inside business processes. (oracle.com) Enterprise resource planning software is the system companies use to run back-office work such as accounting, procurement, payroll, and inventory. Oracle is pitching its new agentic applications as a way to move from software that recommends actions to software that can complete steps in those workflows. (oracle.com) That pitch depends on the database layer. Oracle said its database strategy is to keep artificial intelligence close to operational data so agents can work with live business records without moving data into separate systems, a design the company says improves security, resilience, and speed. (oracle.com) Oracle has been building this campaign in stages. On March 24 in London, it introduced Fusion Agentic Applications as a broader category and separately announced database features aimed at building and running secure agentic artificial intelligence applications on Oracle AI Database. (oracle.com) The April 9 rollout added product-specific counts: Oracle said eight new agentic applications were available in Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management, five in customer experience, and a new set for finance and supply chain operations. The company framed them as tools for recruiting, career planning, sales, service, marketing, procurement, and financial operations. (oracle.com) Oracle is also tying the software push to infrastructure it already sells. Company blog posts and the April 9 database announcement centered Exadata, Oracle Real Application Clusters Fast Restart Recovery, Maximum Availability Architecture, post-quantum cryptography, and Zero Data Loss Recovery Appliance as the stack behind those reliability claims. (oracle.com) Outside coverage described the move as an effort to automate business processes across Oracle’s cloud suite, not just add chat features. Seeking Alpha reported April 9 that Oracle released agentic applications across finance, supply chain management, human resources, and customer relations, while CMSWire wrote April 10 that the customer experience tools are aimed at autonomous execution across sales, service, and marketing workflows. (seekingalpha.com) (cmswire.com) Oracle’s message is that companies will trust artificial intelligence to do more work only if the underlying systems stay secure, available, and tied to the records that run the business. The company spent March and April trying to show those two pieces as one product story. (oracle.com)