PostgreSQL 18 is planned for release at the end of September 2025 - what are some of the new features in it, and how do they impact you? In this talk, we'll take a whirlwind tour of what to expect in PostgreSQL 18, including new performance, developer experience, and more. We'll also hear from Peter Geoghegan, the implementor of the new "skip scan" feature that accelerates index lookups!

Vectors are a centuries old, well-studied mathematical concept, yet they pose many challenges around efficient storage and retrieval in database systems. Applications requiring effective search techniques for vectors have advanced, with "retrieval-augmented generation" (RAG) becoming a key building technique. An extensible database like PostgreSQL can add vector search through an extension like pgvector.

In this talk, we'll review what vectors are, how they are used in applications, and what users are looking for in vector storage and search systems. We'll then see how you can search for vector data in PostgreSQL, including looking at best practices for using pgvector by taking a deeper look at how pgvector implements different vector search techniques. We'll also see where traditional databases methods are most effective for building RAG-driven apps.

At the end of this talk, you'll have a set of best practices you can use when designing applications that require vector search.