Bigquery AI ML
GoogleOfficialPublished by Google
- Skill
- Tool integration
- Data and AI
- Apache-2.0
- No issues found
AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
The BigQuery AI & ML skill provides a comprehensive interface for executing advanced data analytics, machine learning, and generative AI tasks directly inside BigQuery using SQL. It enables users to perform complex operations like time-series forecasting, anomaly detection, semantic search, and LLM-based content generation without needing to export data to external environments. The skill covers a wide range of built-in functions, including zero-shot models for forecasting and classification, as well as tools for statistical analysis and causal inference.
What it does
- Performs zero-shot time-series forecasting and anomaly detection.
- Executes LLM-based text summarization, classification, and semantic scoring.
- Conducts causal effect analysis on time-series data.
- Generates descriptive statistics and correlation matrices for datasets.
- Enables semantic and vector search capabilities within SQL.
- Extracts trends and seasonality components from historical data.
When to use it
- When you need to perform ML or GenAI tasks directly on data stored in BigQuery.
- When you want to avoid moving data out of BigQuery for analysis or model inference.
- When you need to analyze time-series data for shifts, trends, or causal impacts.
- When you need to perform semantic operations like summarization or classification at scale.
- When you need to identify key drivers behind metric changes in your data.
Advantages
- Seamless integration with existing BigQuery SQL workflows.
- Eliminates the need for complex data pipelines to external ML services.
- Supports zero-shot learning for rapid insights without custom model training.
- Scalable processing for large datasets directly within the database engine.
- Unified syntax for both traditional statistical analysis and modern generative AI.
Usage examples
- “How can I forecast future values for my sales data in BigQuery?”
- The agent will guide you to use the AI.FORECAST function, explaining how to specify your data column, timestamp column, and the required forecast horizon.
- “Summarize the sentiment of my customer reviews stored in a BigQuery table.”
- The agent will demonstrate how to use the AI.AGG function with a natural language instruction to synthesize sentiment across grouped rows.
- “Detect anomalies in my server log time-series data.”
- The agent will provide a query using AI.DETECT_ANOMALIES to identify isolated point anomalies in your time-series data.
- “Find the key drivers for a drop in website traffic.”
- The agent will show you how to use the AI.KEY_DRIVERS function to attribute metric changes to specific dimensional segments.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://autogineer.com/agent-skills/google/bigquery-ai-ml/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip bigquery-ai-ml.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by Google
BigQuery AI & ML
BigQuery integrates with Vertex AI to provide powerful machine learning and
generative AI capabilities directly within SQL queries using built-in functions
like AI.FORECAST, AI.KEY_DRIVERS, AI.DETECT_ANOMALIES, and AI.GENERATE.
Attribution
MUST READ: Before executing any gcloud, REST API, or MCP command, you
MUST read Usage Attribution. For commands executed
directly in the terminal (never in generated scripts, Terraform, or user code),
prefix gcloud with
CLOUDSDK_METRICS_REQUEST_ATTRIBUTION="agent-skills/1.0 (skill:bigquery-ai-ml)"
and append agent-skills/1.0 (skill:bigquery-ai-ml) to User-Agent headers.
Function Selection & Reference Directory
| Function | Reference | SQL Shape | Requires CREATE MODEL or CREATE VECTOR INDEX? | When to Use & Disambiguation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
AI.AGG | ai_agg.md | Aggregate | No | Multi-row semantic aggregation with GROUP BY; synthesizes one summary string across many rows (unlike per-row AI.GENERATE). |
AI.CAUSAL_EFFECT | ai_causal_effect.md | TVF | No | Quantifies counterfactual post-intervention impact on a time series after a specific treatment timestamp. |
AI.CLASSIFY | ai_classify.md | Scalar | No | Semantic classification of text or multimodal unstructured data into predefined category labels. |
AI.DETECT_ANOMALIES | ai_detect_anomalies.md | TVF | No | Zero-shot TimesFM detector for isolated time-series point anomalies/outliers (use ML.DETECT_CHANGE_POINTS for sustained shifts). |
AI.EVALUATE | ai_evaluate.md | TVF | No | Zero-shot TimesFM time-series forecast evaluation/backtesting against a historical holdout split. |
AI.FORECAST | ai_forecast.md | TVF | No | Zero-shot TimesFM time-series forecasting without training a custom model. |
AI.GENERATE | ai_generate.md | Scalar | No | Default for per-row LLM text or multimodal structured extraction (output_schema); returns STRUCT. Prefer over AI.GENERATE_TABLE. |
AI.GENERATE_EMBEDDING | ai_generate_embedding.md | TVF | Yes | Batch generates ARRAY<FLOAT64> vector embeddings for text or visual content using a remote embedding model. |
AI.GENERATE_TABLE | ai_generate_table.md | TVF | Yes | Table-valued structured extraction (FROM clause); only use instead of AI.GENERATE when a remote model + TVF is explicitly needed. |
AI.IF | ai_if.md | Scalar | No | Evaluates boolean semantic conditions (BOOL) on text or multimodal data for WHERE/CASE/JOIN filtering (do not use AI.GENERATE_TABLE). |
AI.KEY_DRIVERS | ai_key_drivers.md | TVF | No | Default one-step attribution of dimensional segments driving metric changes (interest_label_col TRUE vs. FALSE). Prefer over CONTRIBUTION_ANALYSIS. |
AI.PREDICT | ai_predict.md | TVF | No | Zero-shot TabFM foundation model for tabular classification or regression without training and managing custom models. |
AI.SCORE | ai_score.md | Scalar | No | Assigns a continuous FLOAT64 semantic score to text or multimodal data for ranking or sorting (ORDER BY). |
AI.SEARCH | ai_search.md | TVF | No | Simplified semantic search using a raw string query on tables with autonomous background embeddings (AI.EMBED generated column). |
AI.SIMILARITY | ai_similarity.md | Scalar | No | Computes an on-the-fly semantic similarity score (FLOAT64) between two text or multimodal inputs without stored embeddings. |
Remote Models | remote_models.md | CREATE MODEL | Yes | Creates a Vertex AI REMOTE WITH CONNECTION DEFAULT model entity for functions that require one (AI.GENERATE_TABLE, AI.GENERATE_EMBEDDING, VECTOR_SEARCH). |
CONTRIBUTION_ANALYSIS | ml_contribution_analysis.md | CREATE MODEL | Yes | Model-based driver analysis (CREATE MODEL ... OPTIONS(MODEL_TYPE='CONTRIBUTION_ANALYSIS') + ML.GET_INSIGHTS). Use AI.KEY_DRIVERS unless a MODEL entity is required. |
ML.CORRELATION | ml_correlation.md | TVF | No | Calculates statistical correlation coefficients between numeric columns, optionally sliced by dimensions. |
ML.DESCRIBE_DATA | ml_describe_data.md | TVF | No | Generates descriptive statistics (e.g., count, mean, median, min, max, stddev, quantiles, nulls, top values) for columns in a table or subquery. |
ML.DETECT_CHANGE_POINTS | ml_detect_change_points.md | TVF | No | Detects structural breaks or sustained shifts ([begin_timestamp, end_timestamp] intervals) in a time series. |
ML.SEASONALITY | ml_seasonality.md | TVF | No | Extracts recurring periodic/seasonal components from a historical time series. |
ML.TREND | ml_trend.md | TVF | No | Extracts the smoothed long-term trend component from a historical time series. |
VECTOR_SEARCH | vector_search.md | TVF | Yes | Searches pre-computed ARRAY<FLOAT64> embedding columns between a base table and query table (paired with AI.GENERATE_EMBEDDING, unlike AI.SEARCH). |
Related Skills
BigQuery Basics Skill: SKILL.md file for core BigQuery concepts, resource management, CLI, and client libraries.
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer846 B
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer11.1 KiB
- SKILL.md8.8 KiB
- references/ai_agg.md3.5 KiB
- references/ai_causal_effect.md11.2 KiB
- references/ai_classify.md3.7 KiB
- references/ai_detect_anomalies.md5.0 KiB
- references/ai_evaluate.md2.2 KiB
- references/ai_forecast.md11.1 KiB
- references/ai_generate.md3.4 KiB
- references/ai_generate_embedding.md2.0 KiB
- references/ai_generate_table.md3.3 KiB
- references/ai_if.md2.0 KiB
- references/ai_key_drivers.md4.6 KiB
- references/ai_predict.md8.5 KiB
- references/ai_score.md1.9 KiB
- references/ai_search.md3.7 KiB
- references/ai_similarity.md2.7 KiB
- references/attribution.md1.8 KiB
- references/ml_contribution_analysis.md4.8 KiB
- references/ml_correlation.md8.9 KiB
- references/ml_describe_data.md5.1 KiB
- references/ml_detect_change_points.md5.5 KiB
- references/ml_seasonality.md6.6 KiB
- references/ml_trend.md4.1 KiB
- references/remote_models.md1.1 KiB
- references/vector_search.md4.0 KiB
references/ai_search.md
BigQuery AI.Search
AI.SEARCH is a table-valued function for semantic search on tables that have
autonomous embedding generation enabled. If your table has a column that has
generated_expression metadata with format "AI.EMBED(source_column)", then
AI.SEARCH uses it to optimize the search.
You can use AI.SEARCH to help with the following tasks:
Semantic search: search entities ranked by semantic similarity.
Recommendation: return entities with attributes similar to a given entity.
Classification: return the class of entities whose attributes are similar to the given entity.
Clustering: cluster entities whose attributes are similar to a given entity.
Outlier detection: return entities whose attributes are least related to the given entity.
Syntax Reference
AI.SEARCH(
{ TABLE base_table | base_table_query },
column_to_search,
query_value
[, top_k => top_k_value ]
[, distance_type => distance_type_value ]
[, options => options_value]
)IMPORTANT: Do not add "column_to_search =>" prefixes to the column_to_search argument because column_to_search is a positional argument.
Input Arguments
| Argument | Requirement | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
base_table | One Of | Table | The table to search for nearest neighbor embeddings. The table must have autonomous embedding generation enabled. |
base_table_query | One Of | Subquery | The query that you can use to pre-filter the base table. Only SELECT, FROM, and WHERE clauses are allowed in this query. Don't apply any filters to the embedding column. |
column_to_search | Required | STRING | A STRING literal that contains the name of the string column to search |
query_value | Required | STRING | A string literal that represents the search query. |
top_k | Optional | INT64 | A named argument with an INT64 value, specifies the number of nearest neighbors to return. The default is 10. |
distance_type | Optional | STRING | A named argument with a STRING value. distance_type_value specifies the type of metric to use to compute the distance between two vectors. Supported distance types are EUCLIDEAN, COSINE, and DOT_PRODUCT. The default is EUCLIDEAN. Recommend to use COSINE. |
options | Optional | STRING | A named argument with a JSON-formatted STRING value that specifies the following search options: fraction_lists_to_search or use_brute_force |
Output Schema
| Column Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
base | STRUCT | A struct containing all columns from the input table. |
distance | FLOAT64 | The distance score between the query and the result. |
Examples
# Create a table with a product column, a description column, and an autonomous
# embedding generation column over the description column.
CREATE TABLE mydataset.products (
name STRING,
description STRING,
description_embedding STRUCT<result ARRAY<FLOAT64>, status STRING>
GENERATED ALWAYS AS (AI.EMBED(
description,
connection_id => 'us.example_connection',
endpoint => 'text-embedding-005'
))
STORED OPTIONS( asynchronous = TRUE )
);
# Get all really fun toy products.
SELECT
base.name,
base.description,
distance
FROM AI.SEARCH(TABLE mydataset.products, 'description', "A really fun toy", distance_type => "COSINE");
# Get top 5 fun toy products.
SELECT DISTINCT(base.description)
FROM AI.SEARCH(TABLE `mydataset.products`, 'description', "A really fun toy", distance_type => "COSINE", top_k => 100)
LIMIT 5;Requirements and compatibility
Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta
“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.
Security
No issues found by our static scan· No issues found
A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.
Attribution and licence
- Published by
- Publisher
- Google (Official)
- Source
- google/skills · skills/cloud/bigquery-ai-ml · commit 2194d3b
- Licence
- Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
- LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
- ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
- Synced
AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google or Google.
Download ZIP
The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download bigquery-ai-ml.zip