Join Lenni for this immersive full-day hands-on lab workshop designed to get you up to speed with the latest and most powerful developer features in SQL Server 2025 and Azure SQL Database. Bring your laptop and roll up your sleeves. You’ll actively build, query, and explore your way through the exciting new capabilities of the platform, guided by expert instruction and real-world examples.

You’ll learn about the latest T-SQL enhancements, including fuzzy matching and regular expressions, that let you write more expressive and intelligent queries. You’ll also work with the new Change Event Streaming feature to stream data changes directly from SQL Server to Azure Event Hubs—enabling real-time, event-driven systems right on top of your database. And you'll dive into the brand-new native JSON data type, blazing-fast JSON indexing, and updated JSON functions that enable high-performance document-style querying in the database.

You will also dive into the advanced new AI capabilities introduced in SQL Server 2025. You’ll build Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) solutions using the native vector data type, vector search, and DiskANN indexing for high-performance semantic search capabilities. You’ll also define and reuse AI models securely, enabling natural language querying directly in SQL Server.

By the end of this workshop, you'll have hands-on experience and working knowledge of SQL Server 2025’s most important new developer features—and a collection of labs you can reuse long after the event.

What You’ll Learn and Do:

• Write expressive and efficient T-SQL using fuzzy matching, regex, and pattern search
• Build JSON-based apps with the new native JSON type and JSON indexing
• Implement AI-powered search with native vector support, DiskANN vector indexing, and AI model definitions
• Capture change data using Change Event Streaming tables

You will learn:

• Use advanced T-SQL techniques—including fuzzy matching and regular expressions—to write smarter, more expressive queries
• Build modern apps with native JSON and vector data types for high-performance document querying and AI-based semantic search
• Enable real-time analytics, monitoring, and event-driven workflows using Change Event Streaming