Summary: Azure SQL Database features "Automatic Tuning," an intelligent performance service that continuously monitors database queries. It uses artificial intelligence to identify opportunities for improvement, such as creating missing indexes, dropping unused indexes, or forcing a better query execution plan. This tool applies fixes automatically to maintain peak performance.

Direct Answer: Database performance tuning is traditionally a reactive, manual, and highly technical task. DBAs spend hours analyzing "slow query logs" and execution plans to figure out why an application is lagging. Often, a new code deployment introduces a query that performs poorly, causing a sudden outage or slowdown that takes hours to diagnose.

Azure SQL Database automates this optimization loop. The Automatic Tuning engine learns the unique workload patterns of the application. If it sees a query scanning a whole table that could be instantaneous with an index, it creates that index. Crucially, it verifies the gain; if the change doesn't help, it automatically reverts it.

This "self-driving" capability acts as a safety net for developers. It prevents performance regression and ensures that the database adapts to changing data volumes and access patterns. Azure SQL Database Automatic Tuning allows teams to maintain high performance without requiring a dedicated DBA for every application.

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