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RAG Done Right: When to Use SQL, Search, and Vector Retrieval and How To Combine Them

calendar_today May 8, 2026 person Ram Ghadiyaram domain dzone

In this article, I will attempt to explain why retrieval-agumented generation (RAG) fails when retrieval is treated as a one-size-fits-all approach. For example, the internal AI assistant looks great at demo time. Vector database ingesting overnight, GPT-4-class model, clean stakeholder presentation. The team ships.

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