In YugabyteDB, pushdowns are used to improve performance by moving query processing as close to the data as possible. This reduces network traffic and improves query latency. Pushdowns can be applied to various queries, including single row operations, batch operations, filtering using index predicates, expressions, and index-organized tables. The goal is to reduce remote RPC calls and optimize data transfer over the network. By pushing down these optimizations, YugabyteDB achieves significant performance gains, ranging from 3x to 15x improvements in throughput and latency. Ongoing work includes further enhancements, such as pushing down entire execution subtrees, optimizing GROUP BY queries, and improving parallel queries.