Oracle Declares ‘AI World’ – A Seismic Shift for Data and Cloud Computing
LAS VEGAS, NV – October 17, 2024 – Oracle has dramatically signaled its future direction, rebranding its annual CloudWorld event to ‘AI World’ and doubling down on artificial intelligence as the core of its evolution. This isn’t just a name change; it’s a declaration that Oracle sees AI as not merely *important*, but as potentially more transformative than the internet itself, according to company founder Larry Ellison. This breaking news from the Las Vegas event has immediate implications for businesses considering their AI strategies and the cloud providers they choose to partner with.
From Cloud to Intelligent Cloud: Oracle’s AI-First Strategy
The shift reflects Oracle’s ambition to create a fully integrated ecosystem where data, infrastructure, and applications communicate seamlessly with AI. Country Manager of Oracle Italy, Carlota Alvarez, emphasized that this isn’t a future aspiration, but a present reality. Oracle aims to deliver “pervasive and native” AI across its entire technology stack – from its core database technology to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and Fusion Applications – without requiring complex and disruptive migrations for its customers. This is a key differentiator, Alvarez stated, as Oracle’s proximity to customer data allows for immediate AI adoption without the need for data movement or process overhauls.
Openness, Performance, and Enterprise Focus: The Three Pillars
Oracle’s strategy rests on three core principles, as outlined by VP & Country Leader Cloud Tech OCI, Andrea Sinopoli: openness, performance, and a continued focus on the enterprise market. The ‘open’ pillar is particularly noteworthy. Oracle is actively embracing interoperability, providing open technologies that facilitate connections between diverse systems and clouds. This includes adopting open formats like Apache Iceberg and Delta Lake to eliminate data silos and enabling collaboration through protocols like Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Agent-to-Agent (A2A). This commitment to openness is a direct response to the growing demand for flexible, multi-cloud environments.
AI Data Platform: Unifying Data for Intelligent Applications
Central to this strategy is the new AI Data Platform, designed to unify lakehouse, database, and AI models into a single, governed architecture. This platform leverages Vector Search technology, allowing users to combine traditional relational database queries with vector searches – a powerful capability for unlocking insights from unstructured data. The platform also allows customers to bring their own Large Language Models (LLMs) – including OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Google Gemini, Meta, and xAI – connecting them to business data via the Model Context Protocol. Oracle then provides the underlying infrastructure, security, governance, and billing through its OCI infrastructure and Universal Credits.
AI Agents: Automating Business Processes with Intelligence
The practical application of this AI strategy is already visible in Oracle’s Fusion Applications, which now feature integrated AI Agents. Giovanni Nubile, Country Leader Applications Private Sector of Oracle, revealed a rapid expansion of these agents, growing from 50 to 400 in just one year, with plans to reach 600 by year-end. These agents are updated quarterly and are available to customers at no additional cost. Furthermore, Oracle has launched an AI Agent Marketplace, allowing partners and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to contribute validated agents to the Fusion Applications ecosystem, creating a “turnkey” AI solution.
The Future of Work: Human-Machine Collaboration
Luca Vellini, Country Leader Applications Public Sector, highlighted a fundamental shift in how companies will operate. “Today, projects are no longer *on* AI, but *with* AI,” he stated. This necessitates a rethinking of roles and skills, with personnel managers needing to manage both human and “non-human” resources – the intelligent agents that will increasingly augment and automate tasks. Vellini envisions a future where applications communicate vocally with AI agents, seamlessly carrying out human activities, a transformation he believes will soon extend to the public sector.
Data Remains King: Oracle’s Enduring Strength
Despite the focus on AI, Oracle remains firmly rooted in its identity as a data company. Mario Nicosia, VP Technology Data Platform at Oracle, underscored that “AI does not live without data,” and that bringing AI closer to the data source is crucial for security, performance, and simplicity. The AI Data Platform’s unified architecture and data catalog are designed to ensure data quality and traceability, recognizing that even the most sophisticated AI models are only as good as the data they are trained on.
The real challenge, according to Sinopoli, lies in adoption, particularly among medium-sized enterprises in regions like Italy. Oracle is investing heavily in its partner ecosystem to accelerate AI implementation and demonstrate the long-term value of AI as an innovation lever, not just a cost comparison. The company is positioning AI not as a replacement for existing infrastructure, but as a catalyst for competitive advantage.
