Couchbase Launches Database AI Services That Unify Data With AI Models

By bringing together operational data, vector processing and AI models on a single platform, Couchbase says the new services help eliminate AI application and agent development complexity and improves data governance and security.

Database provider Couchbase has unveiled a comprehensive suite of model hosting and data processing capabilities for building, deploying and governing agentic AI applications.

By bringing data and models together in a single platform, the new Couchbase AI Services, now generally available, help eliminate the complexity and fragmentation of IT stacks that have hindered the development of agentic applications and moving them from prototype to production, said Rahul Pradhan, Couchbase vice president, product, in an interview with CRN.

“We’re trying to bring to market is a major shift in the way developers and customers are building GenAI and agentic applications based on their operational data,” Pradhan said.

Pradhan said businesses and organizations using the Couchbase database to manage their operational data have been experimenting with generative AI and AI agents. But those efforts often resulted in proof-of-concept projects that felt “fragmented,” Pradhan said, when the IT stack included structured and unstructured data, vector processing capabilities, publicly hosted large language models, generative AI tools, open AI APIs and other disparate components—all held together by “custom glue code.”

Customers were reluctant to put such systems into production because of their kludgy nature and concerns about data governance and security, according to Pradhan.

Couchbase AI Services, built into the Couchbase database, provides a unified platform that the company says combines secure model hosting with data processing for structured and unstructured data, bring models into close proximity to where data resides, Pradhan said.

AI Services Key Features

A critical component of AI Services is the integration with Nvidia AI Enterprise, including support for Nvidia NIM microservices and Nvidia Nemotron models. The platform features automatic vector creation, storage and search; a unified agent catalog for governance and traceability; and intelligent agent memory that the company said enables contextual interactions across sessions.

Built-in AI functions enable SQL++-based analysis directly within applications, a capability that Couchbase says streamlines development while maintaining security and performance at scale. And AI Services’ governance and validation capabilities allow developers to build guardrails around AI agent interactions, verifying agent actions against data governance and business rules before execution.

The result is that the Couchbase database becomes “the memory and context layer” for Ai applications and agents, Pradhan said.

The new AI services help eliminate complexity and reduce data access latency, for data managed in on-premises or cloud systems, for faster LLM engagements, according to the company.

Solution providers can leverage the new AI services to develop custom applications for their customers and then provide services around those applications, Pradhan said, while ISV partners can use them to build commercial applications on the Couchbase database

“The opportunity from a channel perspective, from a partner perspective, is really to look at the platform holistically…how do we take the complexity out of building agent technology [and] AI applications for our customers?” Pradhan said.

One such partner is SWARM Engineering, a strategic services provider that uses AI to help clients solve complex supply chain and logistics problems and has been working with the new AI Services.

“To deliver [the company’s services], we need a database platform that makes AI development faster and more reliable,” said Joe Intrakamhang, SWARM Engineering CTO, in a statement. “Couchbase AI Services streamlines the entire RAG [retrieval augmented generation] pipeline, which means our team can focus on solving supply chain challenges rather than wrestling with infrastructure.

“Having everything in one platform not only accelerates our development velocity but also gives us the control and security our enterprise customers require. When you’re dealing with mission-critical planning decisions that impact people and businesses, you need AI applications built on a foundation you can trust,” Intrakamhang said.