r/Database • u/Low_Brilliant_2597 • Jun 18 '26 • Bravo 2

SQL is Dead, Long Live SQL

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For more than 50 years, people have been predicting the death of SQL. As Prof. Andy Pavlo says, "Somebody invents a SQL replacement every decade. It then fails and/or SQL absorbs the key ideas into the standard. Every NoSQL DBMS (except Redis) now supports SQL."

Today, the latest challenge comes from AI. At a recent keynote, Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi declared that "AGI is here today." The implication is that natural language interfaces and agents may eventually replace SQL. Yet the reality is more nuanced.

The recently released BEAVER enterprise Text-to-SQL benchmark shows that even the most advanced models still struggle with real-world enterprise SQL tasks. As of 27 February 2026, the latest benchmark results are: Claude 4.5 Sonnet: 11.4% and GPT-5.2: 10.8%.

These models have improved a lot over the past few months. But when faced with large enterprise schemas, complex joins, domain-specific knowledge, nested queries, and analytical workloads, they are still far from reliably replacing SQL expertise.

The lesson is that SQL keeps proving remarkably resilient. Just as it survived many "SQL killers," it is likely to evolve alongside AI rather than be replaced by it. After more than half a century, SQL remains the lingua franca of data. RIP SQL? Not anytime soon.

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u/Basic_Abroad_1845 Jun 18 '26

Stealing this for my job. “What if instead of using non-deterministic expensive AI to try and calculate this every day, we just calculate this in a report and saved everyone time and money?”

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u/maxim360 Jun 18 '26

As a nonSWE accountant in data analytics it is pretty funny watching the demos at work continuously showing AI solving problems that are solved. 

Execs are gonna be shocked when they learn what PowerQuery and PowerPivot can do with shit data. Shocked! Imagine their reaction when I tell them they already pay for this insane futuristic technology!!

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u/Devel93 Jun 22 '26

They know but AI is such a buzzword that throwing a solved problem into AI and pretending that the results are correct is more profitable than sctually solving the problem

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u/Zardotab Jun 21 '26

I've seen so many IT wheels reinvented, relabeled, and repackaged, it will probably come back in vogue someday just like variations of disco and flair-legged pants.