Custom proximity search, a new feature in SQL Server 2012 Full-Text Search, is facilitated using the NEAR operator.

A new SQL Server 2025 feature lets organizations run vector-based semantic searches on their own data, connecting to local or cloud-hosted AI models without relying on massive general-purpose LLMs.

At Build 2025, Microsoft announced the public preview of SQL Server 2025. SQL Server 2025 now has AI directly integrated into the database engine for improved search.