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databricks Platform · Updated Aug 25, 2026

ai_prep_search supports plain text and markdown input (Beta)

The ai prep search() SQL function now accepts plain text and markdown STRING content in addition to the structured VARIANT output of ai parse document.

Beta Open docs ↗release note ↗
What it does

The ai prep search() SQL function now accepts plain text and markdown STRING content in addition to the structured VARIANT output of ai parse document. You can now chunk and prepare text that you already have as a string for AI Search indexing and retrieval augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, without first running it through document parsing. Applies to: Databricks SQL Databricks Runtime Beta This feature is in Beta.

Why it matters

Databricks might upgrade the supported or default version to reflect improved representations based on ongoing research.

Key capabilities
The serverless environment version must
The serverless environment version must be set to 3 or above, as this enables features like VARIANT.
Must use either Python or
Must use either Python or SQL. For additional serverless features and limitations, see Serverless compute limitations. The…
'version': The version of the
'version': The version of the output schema to use.
Architecture
Databricks Platform → Platform
In short

The ai prep search() SQL function now accepts plain text and markdown STRING content in addition to the structured VARIANT output of ai parse document. You can now chunk and prepare text that you already have as a string for AI Search indexing and retrieval…

Read the full documentation ↗
Key takeaway
The ai prep search() SQL function now accepts plain text and markdown STRING content in addition to the structured VARIANT output of ai parse document.
2026-08-25-ai-prep-search-supports-plain-text-and-markdown-input-beta Generated by the Databricks Updates Agent · browse all updates