Real Alpha

The MAD Podcast · 5 min instead of 1 h 17 m · Oct 8, 2026

Agents could mean 10 to 100x more database queries

AP

Andy Pavlo

  • Matt TurckHost · Partner, FirstMark

    Publishes the annual MAD landscape of data and AI; sold TripleHop to Oracle.

About this segment

Pavlo frames agents as the fourth wave of database load after enterprise, web and mobile. He expects 10 to 100x more queries but says it is unclear whether agent queries are simpler than human ones.

From “Andy Pavlo: What Happens When Billions of AI Agents Hit Your Database”, Oct 8, 2026. Watch the full episode

“So I think there's going to be potentially a 10 to 100x increase in volume and the number of queries that are going to hit up against databases.”
APAndy Pavloat 13:44 · The MAD Podcast13:44

Takeaways

  1. Past volume jumps: enterprise in the 70s-80s, the web, then mobile
  2. Agents run 24-7 and mix reads and writes, unlike IoT or phones
  3. Open question: agent SQL may be shallower than BI-tool queries
Watch 4:37 from 10:43

In this episode

Full episode

  1. 10:43Agents could mean 10 to 100x more database queries4:37

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