Oracle announced that its low-code application development platform, Oracle APEX, is about to receive a major upgrade, introducing a new AI-powered assistant.

The update aims to further simplify and accelerate the application development process. According to Oracle, the new APEX AI assistant will enable developers to easily build new applications through natural language commands. Developers only need to specify the desired functionality and components, and APEX will automatically generate the necessary Structured Query Language (SQL) statements.

Oracle states that the addition of the APEX AI assistant not only greatly reduces the burden of developers remembering table names but also allows them to add a conversational interface to the applications they create, greatly enhancing the interactivity of the applications.

APEX, as a free feature for Oracle database customers, is not only suitable for locally deployed databases but also supports Oracle Autonomous Database services hosted in the cloud. It significantly reduces the need for developers to write basic application code through declarative methods, making the application development process faster with a speed increase of up to 20 times. Oracle further points out that, on average, developers can create powerful enterprise applications with less than 1% of the code they would normally write.

Applications developed using Oracle APEX can also be combined with advanced generative AI capabilities. For example, when combined with the AI Vector Search feature in Oracle Database 23ai, users can create AI applications with integrated semantic search capabilities, making it easy to search documents, images, and other types of unstructured data.

In addition to supporting natural language commands and converting them into SQL queries, the new assistant in Oracle APEX also has the ability to interpret existing code and provide one-click error fixing suggestions. This greatly reduces the burden on developers, allowing them to focus on building customized application functionality. At the same time, the assistant also supports easy integration of conversational AI interfaces in any application, providing users with a richer interactive experience without developers having to build complex generative AI components themselves.

Mike Hichwa, Senior Vice President of Software Development at Oracle, understands the dilemma developers face when lost in a massive code library.

He said, "I know how difficult it is to remember those rarely used table names, column names, and syntax. With the help of the AI assistant, it can automatically determine column names, JOIN statements, and generate complex SQL syntax based on context, which is a huge relief for me."

One of the early users of the new APEX platform, Trailcon Leasing Inc., is responsible for managing a large fleet of over 30,000 trucks distributed across the United States. To effectively manage this fleet, they used Oracle APEX to build the Trailcon 360 application, fully utilizing its AI-driven document understanding capabilities. This application provides customers with real-time geolocation and telemetry data for predictive maintenance, as well as integrated invoice creation and download functionality.

"Oracle APEX and OCI have allowed our IT solutions team to maintain a high level of agility and continue to provide reliable data services to our customers," said Giovanni Cani, Vice President of IT Delivery at Trailcon. "Compared to other low-code solutions, APEX offers a much simpler user experience." He also expressed great anticipation for future releases of APEX, especially the innovations in AI capabilities and process optimization.

Oracle states that the latest version of Oracle APEX is now available to all eligible customers and will showcase its latest features at the dedicated APEX conference, ODTUG Kscope24, held in Nashville from July 14th to 18th.