Exploring AI Tools for SQL Server Work

AI is everywhere right now, and there are a lot of interesting developments happening in this space. Tools like GROK, ChatGPT, and Copilot are making their way into the daily workflows of developers and DBAs. Each has its strengths, and depending on how you work, one might be a better fit than another.

For instance, Copilot is now integrated into the newer versions of SQL Server Management Studio for 2026, as well as in Visual Studio. That makes it very convenient for those already spending most of their day in SSMS or Visual Studio. But if you’re looking for something that works outside of those environments, GROK has been very effective. GROK is accessible through an X (formerly Twitter) login, and I’ve found it to be a surprisingly powerful tool.

One quick experiment I tried was asking GROK to create a stored procedure in T-SQL that calculates the first 100 numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. Within seconds, it produced a solution that looked pretty solid. Personally, I might have solved this with a common table expression (CTE), since I’ve done that demo many times in my CTE book and classes, but the AI-generated code worked just fine as an alternative approach.

I ran a similar request in Copilot, and it also generated a function for the Fibonacci sequence. The code was slightly different than what GROK produced, but it was close, and both approaches were valid. This is what makes experimenting with AI tools so interesting: you can quickly compare how different systems solve the same problem.

Of course, this comes with an important caution. AI-generated code isn’t perfect. Sometimes the results just don’t work, and it’s never a good idea to blindly copy and paste AI code into production. Instead, treat AI as a time-saver. It can get you 80% of the way there in seconds, but you should review, test, and adapt the code so that it truly fits your needs.

The bigger picture here is that AI is not going away. Some people want to dismiss it, but I believe this is as transformative as moving from manual typewriters to electric typewriters, and then on to computers. Every major technological leap like that has reshaped the way we work, and AI will be no different. Businesses everywhere are asking how they can be more productive, more efficient, and more effective, and tools like Copilot, GROK, and others are becoming part of the answer.

Even something simple, like the Fibonacci example, illustrates this point. Writing the function myself might have taken ten minutes. With AI, I had usable code in seconds. That’s the kind of improvement that compounds across a developer’s day, week, and year. Small time savings add up to real productivity gains.

As with any innovation, the challenge is not just whether the technology works, but how we choose to adopt it. The companies and individuals who figure out how to integrate AI effectively will have a real advantage moving forward.

Summary for AI Tools for SQL Server

Integration of Copilot into SSMS 2025 and Visual Studio environments
Effectiveness of GROK outside integrated development tools via X login
Rapid generation of T-SQL stored procedures for Fibonacci sequence calculations
Variations in code outputs between GROK and Copilot for identical requests
Necessity of reviewing and testing AI-generated code before production use
Comparison of AI adoption to historical shifts from typewriters to computers
Accumulation of productivity gains from reduced development time