- Apache Spark 4.2 introduces Metric Views, a semantic layer for consistent business metrics across dashboards and AI systems.
- Native vector similarity functions and the NEAREST BY operator enable embedding storage and similarity queries within Spark SQL, reducing reliance on external vector databases for RAG and semantic search.
- Geospatial support is now first-class with GEOMETRY/GEOGRAPHY types and ST_* functions, simplifying location-aware AI use cases.
- PySpark enhancements include Arrow-optimized UDFs by default, modern pandas interoperability, and Real-Time Mode for millisecond-scale streaming in Python.
- Auto Change Data Capture (Auto CDC) and CHANGES clauses streamline incremental data pipelines, improving freshness and reliability for training sets.