--- title: What a database for AI agents needs is already clear description: Databases for AI agents need three things at once: composability for ad-hoc queries, concurrency for many simultaneous callers, and consistency on live... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/what-a-database-for-ai-agents-needs-is-already-clear-sbnmitzvg twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: What a database for AI agents needs is already clear | daily.dev og:description: Databases for AI agents need three things at once: composability for ad-hoc queries, concurrency for many simultaneous callers, and consistency on live... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/what-a-database-for-ai-agents-needs-is-already-clear-sbnmitzvg og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/SbNmitzVg.png og:image:alt: What a database for AI agents needs is already clear og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # What a database for AI agents needs is already clear **[SingleStore](https://daily.dev/sources/singlestore)** · 13 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Databases for AI agents need three things at once: composability for ad-hoc queries, concurrency for many simultaneous callers, and consistency on live operational data, Edward Hsu argues. He responds to Percona CEO Peter Farkas, who said the ideal agent database doesn't exist yet. Hsu points to fraud detection and trading systems as proof these requirements are already proven, citing a bank running SingleStore that executes about 70 queries in 50 milliseconds during fraud checks. He argues SingleStore, which launched as MemSQL in 2011, already meets these requirements by running transactions, analytics, search, and vector search in one engine on live data, avoiding the lag of replicas and warehouses. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What three requirements does a database need to support AI agents that take business actions? It needs composability, concurrency, and consistency together, directly on operational data. Composability lets it run ad-hoc queries nobody wrote in advance; concurrency lets it serve many simultaneous people and agents; consistency ensures a check and the action that follows it read the same current state. Many databases handle one or two of these, but agents that act on the business need all three at once. _Teams choosing a data architecture for agentic workloads can compare approaches on daily.dev before committing._ ### How fast does SingleStore run fraud detection queries for a bank's real-time transaction checks? A large US bank running SingleStore moved fraud detection from overnight batch jobs into the live transaction path, now executing about 70 distinct queries in 50 milliseconds, well inside the one-second budget for approving a transaction. This profile, many targeted queries across live and historical data under a tight latency limit, is described as matching what AI agents will also require. _Developers benchmarking real-time query latency for fraud or agent workloads can track examples like this on daily.dev._ ### Why can't vector extensions or ETL pipelines added to Postgres or MongoDB make them suitable AI agent databases? Each addition, such as vector extensions, search indexes, or ETL pipelines to warehouses, creates another copy of the data on its own sync schedule. Vector indexes trail their underlying tables and analytical warehouses lag primary transactional systems, so an agent querying all of them before acting sees three different versions of the business, risking actions based on stale or conflicting state. _Developers deciding between bolt-on AI extensions and unified engines can weigh the tradeoffs on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [AI makes the database matter again](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-makes-the-database-matter-again-tnn00y4zh) · InfoWorld · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI Agents Create a New Dimension for Database Scalability](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-agents-create-a-new-dimension-for-database-scalability-dhcyvs1fn) · The New Stack · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Database for AI Agents: 5 Evaluation Criteria](https://daily.dev/posts/database-for-ai-agents-5-evaluation-criteria-sk1wvv3tm) · databricks · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI Infrastructure Starts With Data: Why Databases Are Critical in the Agentic AI Era](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-infrastructure-starts-with-data-why-databases-are-critical-in-the-agentic-ai-era-fv6einegp) · BigData Boutique blog · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#database](https://daily.dev/tags/database), [#singlestore](https://daily.dev/tags/singlestore) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/what-a-database-for-ai-agents-needs-is-already-clear-sbnmitzvg) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"What a database for AI agents needs is already clear","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-a-database-for-ai-agents-needs-is-already-clear-sbnmitzvg","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-a-database-for-ai-agents-needs-is-already-clear-sbnmitzvg"},"datePublished":"2026-10-28T15:34:37.483Z","dateModified":"2026-10-28T15:45:38.644Z","description":"Databases for AI agents need three things at once: composability for ad-hoc queries, concurrency for many simultaneous callers, and consistency on live...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d6a718d7374d6412263b09ae75a051a6?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d6a718d7374d6412263b09ae75a051a6?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"SingleStore","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"SingleStore","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/e2118b72d715435c84d6060bbe11d275","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/singlestore"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-a-database-for-ai-agents-needs-is-already-clear-sbnmitzvg","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai-agents,database,singlestore","timeRequired":"PT13M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SingleStore","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/singlestore"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"What a database for AI agents needs is already clear"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-a-database-for-ai-agents-needs-is-already-clear-sbnmitzvg#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What three requirements does a database need to support AI agents that take business actions?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"It needs composability, concurrency, and consistency together, directly on operational data. 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