Plain-English glossary
The AI terms that affect your work.
Enough detail to make a decision, without turning every definition into a technical lecture.
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
- Software that performs tasks associated with human intelligence, such as recognizing patterns, generating language, or making predictions. Different AI systems have different capabilities and limits.
- Generative AI
- AI that creates new text, images, audio, video, or code in response to instructions and examples.
- AI model
- The trained system that produces an answer. A product such as a chatbot can use one or more models behind its interface.
- Chatbot
- A conversational interface for giving instructions and receiving answers. The chat format does not make the answers automatically correct.
- Prompt
- The instruction, question, context, or source material you give an AI system. A useful prompt explains the task and the standard the result must meet.
- Context
- The information available to the model for the current task, including your prompt, earlier messages, and attached material.
- Context window
- The amount of information a model can consider at one time. Product limits and model limits differ and change over time.
- Token
- A small unit of text processed by a language model. Tokens affect context limits and, for some products, usage or cost.
- Hallucination
- A fluent but unsupported or false answer produced by an AI system. Confident wording is not evidence that a claim is true.
- Training data
- The material used to develop a model’s patterns and capabilities. Training data is different from the context you provide for one conversation.
- Fine-tuning
- Additional training that adapts a model for a narrower behaviour or task. It is not the same as giving instructions in a single prompt.
- Retrieval
- A process that finds relevant material from a source, such as a document library, and supplies it to a model for the current answer.
- Multimodal AI
- A system that can work with more than one type of input or output, such as text, images, audio, or video.
- Automation
- A process that performs a task with limited manual work. Adding AI to an automation can increase flexibility, but it also adds new ways for the result to be wrong.
- Agent
- An AI-based system designed to take multiple steps, use tools, or act toward a goal. Its access and actions require clear limits and review.
- Data controls
- Product settings and account choices that affect how conversations are stored, used, or managed. Check the provider’s current documentation and your workplace policy.