Kendra Little speculates a bit:
Perhaps speculation feels like the right topic today because Microsoft folks talked a lot about the importance of prediction in the keynotes at the PASS Summit last week.
SQL Server 2016 features R Services. This brings the ability to learn patterns and make predictions into the database engine.
Using this new feature came up a lot in the keynote. And not just for performing predictions for a user application, either: there were quite a few references about using SQL Server’s predictive powers to make SQL Server itselfsmarter.
So what might that mean?
It may be speculation, but it’s quite interesting.