Cloud database company Couchbase Inc. has become the latest technology provider to integrate generative artificial intelligence into its flagship product.

Today it announced a new capability it calls “Capella iQ” for its database-as-a-service offering, Couchbase Capella. According to Couchbase, it’ll help developers to write SQL++ and application code faster and more easily with AI-generated recommendations and sample code.

Generative AI has become the hottest technology in tech, and everybody wants a piece of it. Popularized by OpenAI LP’s ChatGPT, it’s a special kind of AI that can generate anything from original written words to speech and code.

Couchbase Capella is a cloud-hosted version of the Couchbase NoSQL database that is used to power complex business applications. Unlike traditional databases, such as Oracle Database, Capella can process both structured and unstructured data at the same time, making it a more flexible choice for certain kinds of apps. The ability to handle multiple kinds of data means Capella can serve as a data cache. So companies can use just one system in Capella, rather than using three separate systems — a database for structured data, a data store for unstructured information, and a data cache.

According to Couchbase, Capella iQ is built on foundation models that add unique intelligence to the Capella developer workbench, which is an integrated development environment for writing apps that use Capella. With Capella iQ, developers can use natural language commands to generate code, sample datasets and perform tests quickly.

The assistant also provides recommendations on index creation search syntax and other kinds of programmatic access to Capella. The service will help developers build and test application in Capella faster, boosting their overall productivity and improving the quality of their code, Couchbase reckons.

Scott Anderson, senior vice president of product management and business operations at Couchbase, said Capella iQ is available in preview now, and can create code that would normally take hours to produce manually, in a matter of seconds. “This makes developers more efficient when building modern apps,” he said.

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE generative AI will likely be key to the future of application development, as there are not enough developers in the world to write all of the software that needs to be written. “Enterprises want to speed up developer velocity, so it’s good to see Couchbase innovating here,” he said. “We’ll see soon if the benefits deliver on day-to-day enterprise coding practices.”

As well as Capella iQ, Couchbase also announced its intention to create a robust partner ecosystem that revolves around accelerating AI. The Couchbase AI Accelerate partner program will make it simpler for companies to build AI apps with Capella and offer them to other organizations, the company said.

In addition, Couchbase rolled out a number of more traditional updates for the Capella platform that are generally available from today. For instance, It says it’s creating a simplified developer experience by integrating its platform with popular tools such as Vercel and the IntelliJ family of IDEs. Moreover, it has now achieved Infosec PCI compliance and CSA Star certification, meaning the platform meets broader enterprise requirements for cloud-based applications.

Finally, Couchbase said, it’s boosting the performance of Capella itself by dynamically scaling disk storage and input/output operations per second. With this, it says Capella can now handle growing workloads more efficiently with faster response times. As a result, Capella clusters can now handle higher levels of concurrent read and write operations to help applications remain highly available during times of peak demand.

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