Panel on AI for Future Databases: A New Beginning or a Boulevard of Broken Dreams?

AI has opened new directions in database research, from learned components replacing traditional internals to large language mod- els(LLMs), enabling a new generation of database systems that allow querying data beyond tables. Yet, adoption in commercial databases has been incremental rather than a fundamental rethinking of mod- ern data system stacks. In this panel, we bring together experts from academia and industry to discuss the tension between potential and reality in how AI shapes real-world database products.