Can I use AI to write database queries from plain English?
Yes. With your own AI account connected, Ask about my data in Base by Zaweba turns a plain English question into one SELECT query you can run or keep.
Yes, as long as you connect your own AI account. Base by Zaweba has an Ask about my data option that turns a question in plain English into one SELECT query, written for your database. You can open it as a query, run it, or put it into the query you're working on. Nothing is sent until you ask, and the AI features stay greyed out until an account is connected.
Which AI services work
Base doesn't come with an AI of its own. You bring one. It works with accounts from Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Azure, Mistral, Grok, DeepSeek and others, with local models such as Ollama running on your own PC, or with a copy and paste route through a chat website if you'd rather not connect anything directly.
Once an account is connected, the AI menu and the Ask AI panel (Ctrl+Shift+A) become available.
Asking a question
Type the question as you'd say it. "Which customers haven't ordered since March?" "How many members joined each year?" "Show the ten best-selling products with their totals." The AI sees your database design (tables, fields, types and relationships) and writes a single SELECT that answers it.
Then choose what to do with it. Open as query makes a new query from it. Run shows the results. Put in this query drops the SQL into the query you have open, so you can carry on building in the visual designer or on the SQL tab.
Why only SELECT
A SELECT reads data; it doesn't change anything. Base puts AI-suggested SQL through a guard. One SELECT runs read-only. One INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE needs a red confirmation before it runs, and anything else is refused outright. Queries in Base also run on a separate read-only connection with a time limit, so a query can't change data or read other files.
That means asking a question is safe to try even when you're not sure what the answer will look like.
Checking the answer
AI can misread a question, just as a person can. Before you rely on a result, look at the SQL on the query's SQL tab, or open it in the visual designer and see which tables, conditions and totals it used. A quick sense check (does the count look about right, are last month's orders in the list) catches most mistakes.
If a query gives an error, Fix this query sends the query and Base's error message to your AI account and offers a corrected version to apply. Explain this query does the opposite job: it describes in plain words what a query does, which is handy for queries someone else wrote.
What gets sent
By default only the database design goes to the provider, along with the open query, script or table: names of tables, fields, rules and relationships, not your records. There's an Include sample rows option that sends the first three rows of each table if you want the AI to see examples, and it starts off every time. Keys for your AI account are encrypted with Windows DPAPI.
Without AI
You don't need AI to query a Base database. The visual query builder lets you pick tables, double-click fields, and set sorts, conditions and totals, and it writes the SQL for you. Many people use Ask about my data to get a first draft and then finish it in the builder, which is a good way to learn how queries are put together in Base by Zaweba.
