Snowflake Cortex LLMs Functions: A Practical Guide for Data Engineers

1. Introduction

Snowflake Cortex is a game-changer for integrating AI capabilities into data workflows. Designed for experienced data engineers, Cortex’s Generative AI functions empower you to unlock insights, automate processes, and build smarter applications—all without leaving the Snowflake environment. This guide provides practical examples and ready-to-use SQL snippets to help you start using Cortex today.

2. Why Use Cortex GenAI in Snowflake?

Cortex leverages Snowflake’s fully managed infrastructure to bring powerful Large Language Models (LLMs) to your fingertips.

? Seamless Integration: No need for external AI platforms.

? Scalability: Leverage Snowflake’s elastic compute power.

? Cost-Efficiency: Pay only for what you use, with detailed cost tracking.

3. Getting Started with Cortex

Prerequisites:

? Ensure your Snowflake account is enabled for Cortex functions.

? Grant the SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_USER role to your team.

Setup Example:

-- Revoke access from PUBLIC role (optional) 
REVOKE DATABASE ROLE SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_USER FROM ROLE PUBLIC;

-- Grant access to a specific role
GRANT DATABASE ROLE SNOWFLAKE.CORTEX_USER TO ROLE data_engineer_role;        

4. Core Functions: A Practical Guide

Here’s a closer look at Cortex’s main functions with ready-to-use SQL examples:

COMPLETE: Text Generation

Generate text or automate content creation.

SELECT COMPLETE(
  model => 'snowflake-arctic',
  prompt => 'Write a summary about Snowflake Cortex functions.'
);        

CLASSIFY_TEXT: Categorization

Categorize text into predefined labels.

SELECT CLASSIFY_TEXT(
  text => 'The service was outstanding!',
  labels => '[{"label": "Positive"}, {"label": "Negative"}]'
);        

EXTRACT_ANSWER: Q&A

Extract specific answers from documents.

SELECT EXTRACT_ANSWER(
  from_text => 'Snowflake Cortex provides AI capabilities.',
  question => 'What does Snowflake Cortex provide?'
);        

PARSE_DOCUMENT: OCR

Extract text and layout from PDFs and images.

SELECT PARSE_DOCUMENT(
  file => '@my_stage/invoice.pdf',
  mode => 'LAYOUT'
);        

SENTIMENT: Sentiment Analysis

Analyze customer feedback.

SELECT SENTIMENT(
  text => 'The new feature is fantastic!'
);        

SUMMARIZE: Text Summarization

Generate concise summaries of long texts.

SELECT SUMMARIZE(
  text => 'Snowflake Cortex functions are powerful tools for AI integration...'
);        

TRANSLATE: Language Translation

Translate text across languages.

SELECT TRANSLATE(
  text => 'Hello, Snowflake!', 
  from_language => 'en',
  to_language => 'fr'
);        

EMBED_TEXT_768/1024: Text Embeddings

Generate embeddings for similarity searches.

SELECT EMBED_TEXT_768(
  text => 'Snowflake Cortex AI functions' 
);        

COUNT_TOKENS: Monitor Usage

Track token counts to optimize costs.

SELECT COUNT_TOKENS(
  text => 'Analyze this text',
  model => 'snowflake-arctic'
);        

TRY_COMPLETE: Robust Text Generation

Gracefully handle incomplete executions.

SELECT TRY_COMPLETE(
  model => 'snowflake-arctic',
  prompt => 'Generate a technical product description.'
);        

5. Best Practices and Performance Optimization

? Warehouse Size: Use no larger than a MEDIUM warehouse for optimal performance.

? Token Limits: Regularly monitor token usage with COUNT_TOKENS.

? Execution Tips: Prefer batch operations for large-scale use cases.

6. Real-World Applications

? Document Processing: Automate invoice parsing and data extraction.

? Sentiment Analysis: Gain insights from customer reviews.

? Recommendation Systems: Use embeddings for personalized recommendations.

? Summarization for Legal Teams: Condense lengthy legal documents into key points.

? Personalized Marketing: Categorize user behavior data and create targeted campaigns.

? Translate Content: Tailor messaging for international markets.

7. Conclusion and Resources

Snowflake Cortex revolutionizes how data engineers leverage AI within data platforms. With its intuitive SQL interface and robust functionalities, integrating AI has never been easier.

?? Explore more at Snowflake Cortex Documentation.

Ready to transform your workflows? ?? Start using Cortex today!