Databricks AI Functions

Official Docs: https://docs.databricks.com/large-language-models/ai-functions Individual function reference: https://docs.databricks.com/sql/language-manual/functions/

Overview

Databricks AI Functions are built-in SQL and PySpark functions that call Foundation Model APIs directly from your data pipelines — no model endpoint setup, no API keys, no boilerplate. They operate on table columns as naturally as UPPER() or LENGTH(), and are optimized for batch inference at scale.

Always prefer a task-specific function over ai_query. Reach for ai_query only when no task function fits (custom/external endpoints, multimodal, or JSON beyond ai_extract's limits). Every function below shares a baseline: DBR 15.1+ (notebooks) / 15.4 ML LTS (batch), not on SQL Warehouse Classic, and region must support AI Functions — the Prereqs column lists only what's additional.

Cost & speed — each call is an LLM inference (slow and billed per token). Run a function once per row and persist the result to a Delta table; never re-invoke it on every downstream query. In demos, avoid generating tables with millions of rows — sample the input when needed so the demo runs quickly. Materialize once, then query the cheap Delta output.

The Function column links to the in-repo deep reference (full options, schemas, examples); Docs links to the official page.

Function	Task	Input	Output	Extra prereqs	Docs
ai_analyze_sentiment	Sentiment scoring	content STRING	STRING — positive/negative/neutral/mixed, or NULL	—	↗
ai_classify	Fixed-label routing	content STRING|VARIANT, labels (2–500), [options MAP]	VARIANT — {response:[label], error_message}	—	↗
ai_extract	Entity / field extraction	content STRING|VARIANT, schema STRING (JSON), [options MAP]	VARIANT — {response:{…}, error_message, metadata}	≤256 fields, ≤12 nesting levels	↗
ai_fix_grammar	Grammar correction	content STRING	STRING (corrected)	—	↗
ai_gen	Free-form generation	prompt STRING	STRING	—	↗
ai_mask	PII redaction	content STRING, labels ARRAY<STRING>	STRING (entities → [MASKED])	—	↗
ai_similarity	Semantic similarity	expr1 STRING, expr2 STRING	FLOAT (0.0–1.0)	—	↗
ai_summarize	Summarization	content STRING, [max_words INT] (0 = uncapped)	STRING	Public Preview; English-tuned	↗
ai_translate	Translation	content STRING, to_lang STRING	STRING	Langs: en, fr, de, hi, it, pt, es, th	↗
ai_parse_document	Parse PDF / Office / images	content BINARY, [Map('version','2.0', …)]	VARIANT — pages, elements, error_status	DBR 17.3+; ≤500 pages / 100 MB	↗
ai_prep_search	RAG chunking from parsed docs	parsed VARIANT, [options MAP]	VARIANT — {document:{contents, pages, source_uri}, error_status}	DBR 18.2+ (serverless env v3+)	↗
ai_query	Any serving endpoint (built-in foundation or custom), multimodal, complex JSON (last resort)	endpoint STRING, request STRING|STRUCT, [returnType], [failOnError BOOL], [modelParameters STRUCT], [responseFormat STRING], [files]	Parsed response; with failOnError => false a STRUCT{response, errorMessage}	Pro/Serverless warehouse; CAN QUERY on endpoint	↗
ai_forecast	Time series forecasting (table-valued)	observed TABLE, horizon, time_col, value_col, [group_col], [prediction_interval_width], [frequency], [seed], [parameters]	Rows: time/group cols + per value {v}_forecast, {v}_upper, {v}_lower (DOUBLE)	Pro/Serverless warehouse; Public Preview	↗

Models run under Apache 2.0 or LLAMA 3.3 Community License — you are responsible for compliance.

Patterns

Chain task functions to enrich a column in one pass. ai_classify/ai_extract return a VARIANT — read it with the colon operator (:response):

SELECT id,
  ai_analyze_sentiment(content)                                                   AS sentiment,
  ai_summarize(content, 30)                                                       AS summary,
  ai_classify(content, '["technical","billing","other"]', map('version','2.0')):response[0]::STRING AS category,
  ai_extract(content, '["product","error_code","date"]', map('version','2.0')):response:product::STRING AS product,
  ai_fix_grammar(content)                                                         AS content_clean
FROM raw_feedback;

In PySpark, call any of these inside expr(...): df.withColumn("category", expr("ai_classify(content, '[\"a\",\"b\"]', map('version','2.0')):response[0]::STRING")) — and read VARIANT fields via selectExpr("col:response:field::STRING AS field").

PII redaction before storage — ai_mask(content, ARRAY(entity_types)) returns text with entities → [MASKED].

SELECT ai_mask(message, array('person','email','phone','address')) AS message_safe FROM raw_messages;

Semantic matching / dedup — ai_similarity returns 0–1; self-join and threshold:

SELECT a.id, b.id, ai_similarity(a.name, b.name) AS score
FROM companies a JOIN companies b ON a.id < b.id
WHERE ai_similarity(a.name, b.name) > 0.85;

Forecasting — table-valued; one row per future period (+ per group). Full param/group/interval forms → 3-ai-forecast.md:

SELECT * FROM ai_forecast(
    observed => TABLE(SELECT date, sales FROM daily_sales),
    horizon => '2026-12-31', time_col => 'date', value_col => 'sales');
-- Returns: date, sales_forecast, sales_upper, sales_lower

Nested JSON via ai_query (last resort — only past ai_extract's limits) — parse the response with from_json. Model names, multimodal files =>, modelParameters, SQL UDF → 2-ai-query.md:

SELECT from_json(
    ai_query('databricks-claude-sonnet-4',
        concat('Extract invoice as JSON with nested line_items array: ', text_blocks),
        responseFormat => '{"type":"json_object"}', failOnError => false).response,
    'STRUCT<numero:STRING, total:DOUBLE, line_items:ARRAY<STRUCT<code:STRING, qty:DOUBLE>>>'
) AS invoice
FROM parsed_documents;

Document parsing (ai_parse_document) and RAG chunking (ai_prep_search) get their own staged pipeline below.

Document Processing Pipeline

Chain AI Functions stage-by-stage into Delta tables for batch document processing. The example is written as a Spark Declarative Pipeline (SDP / Lakeflow / DLT) — CREATE OR REFRESH STREAMING TABLE with STREAM(...) sources. To run the same logic standalone in a notebook / SQL warehouse, swap each CREATE OR REFRESH STREAMING TABLE x AS for CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE x AS and drop the STREAM(...) wrappers. In SDP Python it's @dp.table with from pyspark import pipelines as dp.

-- Stage 1 — parse binary docs (any type), filter parse errors
CREATE OR REFRESH STREAMING TABLE raw_parsed AS
SELECT path,
  concat_ws('\n', transform(parsed:document:elements, e -> e:content::STRING)) AS text_blocks,
  parsed:error_status AS parse_error
FROM (
  SELECT path, ai_parse_document(content, map('version','2.0')) AS parsed
  FROM STREAM read_files('/Volumes/my_catalog/doc_processing/landing/', format => 'binaryFile')
)
WHERE parsed:error_status IS NULL;

-- Stage 2 — classify document type (cheap, no endpoint selection)
CREATE OR REFRESH STREAMING TABLE classified_docs AS
SELECT *,
  ai_classify(text_blocks, '["invoice","purchase_order","receipt","contract","other"]', map('version','2.0')):response[0]::STRING AS doc_type
FROM STREAM raw_parsed;

-- Stage 3 — extract fields; ai_extract returns a VARIANT, read fields with `:`
CREATE OR REFRESH STREAMING TABLE extracted AS
SELECT path, doc_type,
  result:response:invoice_number::STRING AS invoice_number,
  result:response:vendor_name::STRING    AS vendor_name,
  result:response:total_amount::DOUBLE   AS total_amount,
  result:error_message::STRING           AS extract_error
FROM (
  SELECT *, ai_extract(text_blocks,
    '{"invoice_number":{"type":"string"},"vendor_name":{"type":"string"},"total_amount":{"type":"number"}}',
    map('version','2.0')) AS result
  FROM STREAM classified_docs WHERE doc_type = 'invoice' AND text_blocks IS NOT NULL
);

In a batch job, route the per-row error to a sidecar table instead of letting it crash the run: keep ai_extract's result:error_message (VARIANT, colon-accessed, as above), and for ai_query pass failOnError => false and check ai_response.errorMessage (a STRUCT field, dot-accessed). See 2-ai-query.md.

Custom RAG Pipeline — Parse → Prep → Index

For retrieval rather than field extraction: ai_parse_document → ai_prep_search (semantic chunking + context enrichment, DBR 18.2+) → Vector Search Delta Sync index. ai_prep_search returns chunk_id, chunk_to_retrieve, and chunk_to_embed (enriched with title/headers/page) — embed chunk_to_embed, return chunk_to_retrieve to the LLM. Shown standalone; in an SDP swap CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE for CREATE OR REFRESH STREAMING TABLE + STREAM read_files(...).

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE parsed_chunks AS
WITH prepped AS (
  SELECT path AS source_path, ai_prep_search(ai_parse_document(content)) AS prep
  FROM read_files('/Volumes/my_catalog/doc_processing/docs/', format => 'binaryFile')
)
SELECT
  variant_get(chunk, '$.chunk_id',          'STRING') AS chunk_id,
  variant_get(chunk, '$.chunk_to_retrieve', 'STRING') AS chunk_to_retrieve,
  variant_get(chunk, '$.chunk_to_embed',    'STRING') AS chunk_to_embed,
  source_path
FROM prepped LATERAL VIEW explode(variant_get(prep, '$.document.contents', 'ARRAY<VARIANT>')) c AS chunk;

Then enable CDF (ALTER TABLE parsed_chunks SET TBLPROPERTIES (delta.enableChangeDataFeed = true)) and use the databricks-vector-search skill to build a Delta Sync index: PK chunk_id, embedding source chunk_to_embed, return chunk_to_retrieve.

Beyond batch:

• Ask questions over the output — point a Genie Agent at the resulting Delta table for natural-language querying instead of hand-written SQL; see the databricks-genie-agents skill.
• Low-latency / serving — to expose this as a real-time, governed endpoint (e.g. register a model to Unity Catalog and serve it), use the databricks-model-serving skill.
• Production incremental ingestion — for a runnable end-to-end streaming ai_parse_document job (checkpoints, trigger(availableNow=True)), see databricks/bundle-examples · job_with_ai_parse_document.

Reference Files

• 1-task-functions.md — Deep reference for every task-specific function: full options/schemas (e.g. ai_extract v2.1 citations + confidence scores, ai_classify multilabel, ai_parse_document options + output schema, ai_prep_search chunk schema) and non-trivial examples. The Overview table above links to each function's section directly.
• 2-ai-query.md — ai_query complete reference: all parameters, structured output with responseFormat, multimodal files =>, UDF patterns, and error handling
• 3-ai-forecast.md — ai_forecast parameters, single-metric, multi-group, multi-metric, and confidence interval patterns

Common Issues

Issue	Solution
ai_parse_document not found	Requires DBR 17.3+. Check cluster runtime.
ai_prep_search not found	Requires DBR 18.2+ (serverless env v3+).
explode() fails on a VARIANT	explode needs ARRAY — cast first: explode(variant_get(prep, '$.document.contents', 'ARRAY<VARIANT>')).
Embedding the wrong RAG column	Embed chunk_to_embed (context-enriched); return chunk_to_retrieve to the LLM.
ai_forecast fails	Requires Pro or Serverless SQL warehouse — not available on Classic or Starter.
All functions return NULL	Input column is NULL. Filter with WHERE col IS NOT NULL before calling.
ai_translate fails for a language	Supported (8): English (en), French (fr), German (de), Hindi (hi), Italian (it), Portuguese (pt), Spanish (es), Thai (th) — to_lang takes the code or the full name (see references/1-task-functions.md). Use ai_query with a multilingual model for others.
ai_classify returns unexpected labels	Use clear, mutually exclusive label names. Fewer labels (2–5) produces more reliable results.
ai_query raises on some rows in a batch job	Add failOnError => false — returns a STRUCT with .response and .errorMessage (dot-accessed) instead of raising.
Batch job runs slowly	Use DBR 15.4 ML LTS cluster (not serverless or interactive) for optimized batch inference throughput.