January 2026

These features and Azure Databricks platform improvements were released in January 2026.

Note

The release date and content listed below only corresponds to actual deployment of the Azure Public Cloud in most case.

It provide the evolution history of Azure Databricks service on Azure Public Cloud for your reference that may not be consistent with the actual deployment on Azure operated by 21Vianet.

Note

Releases are staged. Your Azure Databricks account might not be updated until a week or more after the initial release date.

Unified Lakebase interface

January 15, 2026

Lakebase Provisioned instances are now accessible through the Lakebase App (via the apps switcher in the Databricks UI). The new unified interface consolidates Lakebase Provisioned and Lakebase Autoscaling management in one location, replacing the previous workflow of navigating to the Compute tab in the Lakehouse UI.

Databricks Runtime 18.0 is now GA

January 15, 2026

Databricks Runtime 18.0 is now generally available. See Databricks Runtime 18.0 and Databricks Runtime 18.0 for Machine Learning.

Ingest Salesforce formula fields incrementally (Beta)

January 13, 2026

By default, Lakeflow Connect doesn't ingest Salesforce formula fields incrementally. Instead, it takes a snapshot of these fields on each pipeline run, then joins them with the rest of the table. However, you can now enable incremental formula field ingestion, which often significantly improves performance and reduces costs.

Agent Bricks: Knowledge Assistant is now generally available

January 13, 2026

Agent Bricks provides a streamlined approach to operationalize data into production-grade AI agents. Use Agent Bricks: Knowledge Assistant to create a chatbot that can answer questions about your documents and provide high-quality responses with citations.

Knowledge Assistant is now generally available in select US regions for workspaces without Enhanced Security and Compliance features. For workspaces with enhanced security and compliance, Knowledge Assistant will be generally available soon. See What's coming.

Row filtering for managed ingestion connectors (Beta)

January 13, 2026

Lakeflow Connect now offers row filtering for managed ingestion connectors to improve performance and minimize data duplication. Row filtering applies conditions similar to a SQL WHERE clause, allowing you to ingest only the data you need from your source systems.

This feature is available for the Google Analytics, Salesforce, and ServiceNow connectors.

Databricks Runtime maintenance updates (01/09)

January 9, 2026

New maintenance updates are available for supported Databricks Runtime versions. These updates include bug fixes, security patches, and performance improvements. For details, see:

Create skills for Databricks Assistant

January 6, 2026

You can now create skills to extend Databricks Assistant in agent mode with specialized capabilities for domain-specific tasks. User skills follow the open Agent Skills standard and are automatically loaded when relevant.

Automatic email notifications for expiring personal access tokens (GA)

January 6, 2026

Automatic email notifications for expiring personal access tokens are now generally available. For more information, see Set the maximum lifetime of new personal access tokens.

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