Article: Jakarta EE 12 Milestone 2: Advent of the Data Age Along with Consistency and Configuration

2026-02-10 · Source: InfoQ · Field: Technology & Digital — Software Development & Engineering, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Data Science & Analytics · Depth: Intermediate, long

Summary

Jakarta EE 12 Milestone 2, scheduled for Q1 2026, introduces significant updates focused on data integration, consistency, and developer productivity, with a baseline of Java 21 and support for Java 25. A key feature is Jakarta Query 1.0, a new specification centralizing query languages like JPQL and JDQL into a unified persistence layer. Jakarta Data 1.1 enhances dynamic queries and introduces stateful repositories, while Jakarta NoSQL 1.1 facilitates NoSQL integration with a new Query interface. Jakarta Persistence 4.0 transfers JPQL to Jakarta Query and supports Java 21's `SequencedCollection`. Additionally, the new Jakarta Agentic AI specification, which passed its creation review in November 2025, will provide vendor-neutral APIs for building and deploying AI agents on Jakarta EE runtimes, offering a streamlined facade for LLM integration.

Key takeaway

For architects evaluating enterprise Java platforms, Jakarta EE 12 Milestone 2 signals a robust evolution towards unified data access and AI integration. Your teams should explore Jakarta Query for streamlined persistence layer interactions and investigate Jakarta Agentic AI for future-proofing applications with intelligent agent capabilities. This release provides architectural relevance by explicitly supporting polyglot persistence and modern Java baselines, reducing framework-specific abstractions.

Key insights

Jakarta EE 12 unifies data querying, modernizes Java baselines, and integrates agent-based AI capabilities.

Principles

• Unify query languages for consistency.
• Support polyglot persistence natively.
• Standardize AI agent development.

Method

Jakarta Query centralizes JPQL and JDQL into a Core Language and Persistence Language. Jakarta Data 1.1 supports dynamic queries via fluent API and stateful repositories. Jakarta NoSQL 1.1 provides a `Query` interface for dynamic parameter binding.

In practice

• Use Jakarta Query for unified SQL/NoSQL data access.
• Implement Jakarta Agentic AI for LLM integration.
• Leverage Java 21 features in Jakarta Persistence.

Topics

• Jakarta EE 12
• Jakarta Query
• AI Agents
• Java Persistence
• Polyglot Persistence

Code references

• orgs/jakartaee
• jakartaee/query
• jakartaee/data
• jakartaee/nosql
• jakartaee/persistence

Best for: CTO, VP of Engineering/Data, Director of AI/ML, Software Engineer, AI Architect, AI Engineer

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by InfoQ.