One of the most rewarding aspects of our industry is the continuous opportunity to learn and tackle new challenges with cutting-edge technologies throughout your career. These advancements often come swiftly, requiring us to stay prepared and adaptable. Oracle has accelerated its pace, possibly due to Oracle APEX, and is increasingly proactive in ensuring their innovations reach both customers and developers through the organisation of events like these.

For us, staying up-to-date and fostering a sense of community are best achieved through attending conferences. These events are invaluable for sharing the latest developments, strengthening connections between professionals, and inspiring the adoption of both emerging and established technologies to address our customers’ needs.

Furthermore, providers often overlook the importance of expanding the knowledge base among customers and partners, covering all stages from business to development. Oracle aimed to address this gap during the inaugural Iberian Tour by showcasing new features of Oracle Database 23ai and APEX in four locations throughout February 2025: Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, and Malaga.

At Novoshore, we have a passion for attending conferences, so when one was happening just around the corner, we couldn’t miss it!

It was a fantastic day filled with reconnecting with old colleagues, meeting customers, and making new contacts. We gained valuable insights into the latest features of Oracle Database 23ai, explored APEX 24.2 and its AI integrations, enjoyed playing on simulators, competed in quizzes, and savoured some local tapas for lunch. And if you’re still skeptical, you can check out Oracle’s social media for insights into the events’ success!

It’s right there in the name of the DB version, so it’s no surprise that many of the enhancements and new features are laying a solid foundation for the AI era. Some of the new features presented that we’re particularly excited about are:

  • There’s a new data type, VECTOR, that is designed to store vector embeddings alongside business data. These embeddings, generated from models, transform unstructured data into mathematical vector representations, enabling semantic queries based on meaning rather than keywords. This allows for more accurate similarity searches, as vectors capture the semantic context of content like text, images, and videos. The VECTOR data type supports various formats and dimensions, making it versatile for machine learning algorithms and other AI-driven applications

  • JSON Duality Views combine the simplicity of JSON documents with the power of relational data models. This feature allows applications to access and manipulate the same underlying data either as JSON documents or relational tables, depending on the use case or the developer’s preferences. By providing a unified approach, JSON Duality Views eliminate the need for complex object-relational mapping (ORM) and enable seamless data access through document APIs, REST, and SQL. This flexibility enhances application development and evolution, making it easier to build RESTful and mobile applications while maintaining consistent and efficient data handling.

  • Not to forget that now we also have advanced graph capabilities, enabling users to model, analyse, and visualise relationships within their data. This feature allows for efficient handling of complex data structures and supports a variety of graph algorithms for insights and analytics. Users can leverage graph queries to uncover patterns, identify connections, and optimise network structures. By integrating graph data models with SQL and other data processing tools, Oracle Database 23ai provides a powerful platform for both traditional and modern data analysis needs. In addition, as of version 23.6, it’s easier to handle this type of data manipulation by using the new SQL Property Graph syntax, simplifying the amount of joins and reducing long queries to few lines.

  • Oracle True Cache is an in-memory, automatically managed cache for Oracle Database, designed to improve performance and scalability by reducing the need for read operations from the primary database. It acts as a read-only replica that stores frequently accessed data, ensures data consistency, and implements security policies. True Cache is transparent to applications, easy to use, and helps enhance application response times and reduce network latency

And many more things, such as the option to extend a table and make it have up to 4096 columns, but let me jump now to APEX and some of the demos that they presented.

For APEX, as well, all the focus went to AI (both dev and gen, as Monica called the collection of AI new features in her demo), but the different demos also covered JSON Data sources and a simple migration from Forms to APEX as it’s happening now days for many customers. A small collection of new features presented is:

  • Create App using AI

  • Create DB Model using AI

  • New Data sources – JSON type

  • And showcasing some of the new components

Most of this content is already covered in our post about the new features of 24.2. If you’re interested in diving deeper, just follow this link or get in touch with us!

To wrap up, having this event so close to our office in Málaga allowed us to bring the entire APEX team to Oracle’s office. We enjoyed reconnecting with old colleagues, meeting customers, and making new contacts. Here are some of their impressions:

A great experience at an event where we learned the basics of AI in Oracle and how it integrates into any APEX application. We also delved into the functioning of Oracle’s vector database and got a detailed understanding of the new JSON Duality View functionality.

Alex, Novoshore Europe S.L.

A very interesting event where we discovered the new elements contained in our databases in 23ai, as well as the incorporation of AI into both our databases and our applications in APEX.

Dani, Novoshore Europe S.L.

Although it wasn’t very technical and was more oriented towards those unfamiliar with APEX, it was an excellent opportunity to learn about the latest developments in AI integration, both in Oracle Database 23ai and APEX.

Mathias, Novoshore Europe S.L.

From my perspective as a junior user of ORACLE APEX, the event was an entertaining and motivating experience. Seeing the new features in action demonstrates how APEX continues to evolve to further facilitate application development. Even those with little experience or limited time can leverage its potential to quickly and effectively create applications, especially with the support of AI.

Roberto, Novoshore Europe S.L.

A heartfelt thanks to Oracle and Oracle APEX team (Mónica, Priscila, Guillermo, Antonio and Valentín, among others) for hosting such a fantastic event for all of us, while keeping our motivation sky-high to start using these exciting new features. We look forward to seeing you at the next conference!