Confused by the jargon? This is every AI term, tool and brand you're likely to hear, explained in plain English with no tech-speak. Search it, filter it, or browse A to Z.
Last updated 9 October 2026
Showing 166 terms
Trying two versions of something, like an email subject line, to see which performs better.
Also known as: Split testing
Answer Engine Optimisation. Writing content that gives clear, direct answers so search engines and AI assistants can quote it.
Also known as: Answer engine optimisation
AI that can take actions to complete a goal, not just chat. It can plan steps, use tools and carry out tasks for you.
An AI tool that helps with everyday tasks like drafting emails, planning your week or researching a topic, usually through chat or voice.
AI-written summary answers that Google shows at the top of some search results.
Searching with AI tools that give you an answer in plain language rather than a list of links.
The ongoing debate about who owns AI-created content and whether AI tools can learn from copyrighted material. Check the terms of any tool before using output commercially.
A way for one piece of software to talk to another. It is how apps plug AI into their own products.
Also known as: Application programming interface
Adobe's AI image and design tools, built into Photoshop and Illustrator and trained on licensed content.
Also known as: Firefly
A way of describing AI systems that work toward a goal with some independence, making decisions and taking several steps themselves.
A set of step-by-step instructions a computer follows to complete a task or make a decision.
The work of making sure an AI behaves in line with human values and intentions.
A short written description of an image, used by screen readers and search engines.
The US AI company behind Claude, known for its focus on AI safety.
Apple's set of AI features built into iPhone, iPad and Mac, including writing help and a smarter Siri.
In Claude, a side panel where a document, page, chart or small tool you have asked for appears so you can edit, download or share it.
A hoped-for future AI that could learn and do almost any thinking task as well as a person. It does not exist yet and experts disagree on when, or if, it will.
Also known as: AGI
Computer systems that can do tasks which normally need human thinking, like writing, spotting patterns, answering questions or making recommendations.
Also known as: AI
Getting a task to happen on its own, without you doing it by hand each time.
An AI app builder where you describe the app or website you want in plain English and it builds it for you.
A standard test used to compare how well different AI models perform. Useful as a guide, but not the same as how well a model suits your business.
When an AI gives unfair or skewed results because of patterns in the data it learned from.
The way your business sounds in writing, including your tone, favourite words and words you avoid.
Customer Relationship Management. A system for tracking your leads, customers and conversations in one place.
Also known as: Customer relationship management
An easy online design tool for social posts, presentations and documents, with a growing set of AI features.
A popular video editing app, widely used for short social videos, with AI features like auto captions.
Asking an AI to work through a problem step by step before giving its answer, which often improves accuracy.
OpenAI's AI chatbot and one of the most widely used AI tools in the world. It writes, explains, analyses and creates images.
A programme you talk to in everyday language. Modern AI chatbots can write, explain, summarise and help you think things through.
Anthropic's AI assistant, known for clear writing, careful reasoning and working well with long documents. Features include Projects and Cowork.
A tool from Anthropic that works directly on your computer to read, edit and create files and code from instructions you give it in plain English.
A mode in the Claude desktop app where Claude carries out multi-step tasks using the files on your computer, then hands back finished work.
Also known as: Cowork
The computing power needed to train and run AI. It is a big reason AI is expensive to build.
An AI ability to see your screen and operate your computer by clicking, typing and navigating like a person would.
AI that can look at images or video and work out what is in them, like reading a receipt or spotting a face.
Links that let an AI work with your other apps, like your calendar, email or cloud storage.
Turning one piece of content, such as a video or blog post, into several others for different platforms.
How much text an AI can hold in mind in one conversation, including your messages, its replies and any files you share.
Also known as: Context length
A code editor with AI built in, used by developers to write and change code faster.
Standing instructions you write once so an AI follows them in every conversation, such as your tone, audience and preferences.
A Claude setting that controls how it writes to you, such as shorter sentences, plainer language or a particular tone.
Also known as: Styles
OpenAI's image generation model, which creates pictures from written descriptions.
Keeping personal and business information safe and controlling who can see and use it.
How long a tool keeps your data, such as conversations and uploaded files, before deleting it.
A type of machine learning that uses many layers of artificial neural networks. It powers most of today's chatbots, image generators and voice tools.
A feature where the AI spends several minutes searching many sources and then writes a detailed, referenced report.
A Chinese AI company whose chatbot and open models drew attention for strong results at low cost.
A fake photo, video or voice recording made with AI that looks or sounds like a real person.
European legislation that regulates AI according to risk level. It can matter to UK businesses that sell into the EU.
An AI voice platform that creates realistic speech, voiceovers and voice clones from text.
A series of emails sent automatically over time, such as a welcome series for new subscribers.
Also known as: Drip campaign
A way of turning words or images into numbers so AI can measure how similar their meanings are.
A mode where the AI takes longer to reason through a difficult question before answering.
Also known as: Reasoning mode
Giving an AI a few examples of what you want before asking it to do the task, so it copies the pattern.
Attaching documents, spreadsheets, PDFs or images to a chat so the AI can read and work with them.
Giving an existing AI extra training on specific examples so it gets better at a particular task or style.
An AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes and summarises calls.
Also known as: Fireflies.ai
A very large, general-purpose AI model trained on broad data that other tools and apps are then built on top of.
The UK and EU data protection law that sets rules for how businesses collect, store and use personal data.
Also known as: UK GDPR, General Data Protection Regulation
Generative Engine Optimisation. Making your content easy for AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity to find, understand and recommend.
Also known as: Generative engine optimisation
A type of computer chip, originally made for graphics, that is brilliant at the heavy maths AI needs.
Also known as: Graphics processing unit
An AI tool that builds presentations, documents and simple web pages from a short brief.
Google's AI assistant and family of models, built into Google apps like Gmail, Docs and Search.
AI that creates new things, such as text, images, music, video or code, rather than just analysing existing information.
Also known as: GenAI
An AI coding helper that suggests and writes code inside a programmer's editor.
Google's main AI research lab and the team behind the Gemini models.
Also known as: DeepMind
The AI chatbot from xAI, closely linked to the social platform X.
Rules and safety measures built into an AI to stop it producing harmful or inappropriate content.
The three sizes of Claude model. Haiku is fastest and lightest, Sonnet is the balanced everyday choice, and Opus is the most powerful for deep thinking.
When an AI confidently gives an answer that is wrong or made up. Always check important facts, figures and sources.
An AI video tool that creates talking avatar videos and translates videos into other languages.
A platform for creating AI images and short videos, with tools for character consistency and camera moves.
An online hub where developers share and download AI models and tools, often called the GitHub of AI.
A person checking and taking responsibility for what an AI produces, especially before it goes to customers.
Keeping a person involved to review or approve what the AI does before it takes effect.
The Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator for data protection, which publishes guidance on using AI with personal data.
Also known as: Information Commissioner's Office
The moment an AI actually produces an answer from what it has already learned, as opposed to the learning stage.
A connection that lets two tools share information or work together.
Improving AI output through repeated rounds of feedback and tweaks rather than expecting it to be perfect first time.
An attempt to trick an AI into ignoring its safety rules.
A word or phrase people type into search engines, which you use in your content so the right people find you.
The date after which an AI's built-in knowledge stops. It can only know about newer events if it searches the web.
Also known as: Training cutoff
Documents you upload to an AI project, like your brand voice guide or price list, so it can use your real information.
Also known as: Project knowledge
The engine behind chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude. It has learned from huge amounts of text and predicts what words should come next to produce useful answers.
Also known as: LLM
The delay between you asking something and the AI starting to answer.
A free resource, like a checklist or guide, that you offer in exchange for someone's email address.
Meta's family of open-weight AI models that developers can download and build on.
An AI tool that builds web apps and websites from plain English descriptions.
Building software with visual tools plus a small amount of code where needed.
A proposed plain text file that gives AI tools a simple guide to your website. Not every AI tool uses it yet.
A way of building AI where the computer learns patterns from lots of examples instead of being given step-by-step rules.
Also known as: ML
A visual automation platform for building workflows that connect apps and AI, often seen as a more flexible alternative to Zapier.
Also known as: Make.com
One detailed prompt that gives the AI everything up front: role, task, audience, tone, length, format and what to avoid.
A feature that lets an AI remember useful details about you and your business between conversations.
The company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and the maker of the Llama models.
Meta's AI assistant, available inside Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
The technology giant behind Windows and Microsoft 365, and a major investor in OpenAI. It builds AI into its products as Copilot.
Microsoft's AI assistant, built into Windows, Edge and Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams.
Also known as: Copilot
A popular AI image generator known for striking, artistic pictures made from text descriptions.
False or misleading information, which AI can produce by mistake or be used to spread on purpose.
A French AI company and its family of AI models, popular with developers and businesses wanting European options.
Also known as: Le Chat
The trained "brain" of an AI tool. Different models have different strengths, speeds and costs.
Also known as: AI model
A standard way to connect AI assistants to other apps and data so they can read from them and take actions.
Also known as: MCP
Choosing a different AI model for the task, for example a fast one for quick jobs and a more powerful one for complex thinking.
AI that can work with more than one type of information at once, such as text, images, audio and video.
AI built to do one specific job well, like a spam filter or a satnav. Every AI tool you use today is narrow AI, even the clever ones.
Also known as: Weak AI
The part of AI that lets computers understand and produce human language, written or spoken.
Also known as: NLP
A computer system loosely inspired by the brain, made of connected layers that pass information along and learn from examples.
Building apps, websites or automations by using visual tools or plain English instead of writing code.
Google's tool for chatting with your own documents. It answers using only the sources you upload and can create audio summaries.
The company that makes most of the high-powered chips used to train and run AI.
A workflow automation tool that can be self-hosted, popular with people building AI automations.
AI models whose inner workings are shared publicly so anyone can use, adapt and run them. Some are only partly open, which is often called open-weight.
Also known as: Open-weight model
The US company behind ChatGPT, DALL-E and Sora.
The shape you ask the answer to take, such as a table, a short email, bullet points or a step-by-step plan.
The internal settings an AI adjusts as it learns. Bigger models generally have more parameters, but bigger is not always better.
An AI-powered search tool that answers questions in plain language and shows the sources it used.
The character or role you give an AI, including how it speaks and who it is speaking to.
Any information that can identify a living person, such as a name, email address or photo. Think carefully before pasting it into AI tools.
Tailoring messages and offers to the individual person, such as using their name or reflecting their interests.
In Claude, a dedicated workspace with its own instructions and uploaded files that every chat inside it uses automatically.
The instruction or question you type (or say) to an AI. The clearer your prompt, the better the answer.
Getting to a good result through a series of follow-up messages, each refining the last, instead of hunting for one perfect prompt.
The skill of writing prompts that get consistently good results from AI. In practice it mostly means being clear and specific.
A trick where hidden instructions in a document or web page try to make an AI do something its user never asked for.
A reusable prompt with blanks to fill in, such as [YOUR BRAND] or [YOUR AUDIENCE], so you get consistent results every time.
Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback. People rate AI answers and the AI learns to produce the kind people prefer.
Also known as: Reinforcement learning from human feedback
Training an AI by rewarding good results and discouraging bad ones, a bit like training a dog with treats.
An online coding workspace with an AI agent that can build and run apps from your instructions.
Using AI in a fair, transparent and careful way, with people kept in charge of important decisions.
Also known as: Ethical AI
A method where the AI looks up information from your own documents before answering, so its replies are based on your facts.
Also known as: RAG
Asking the AI to write the prompt that would have produced an answer you liked, so you can reuse it.
Telling an AI who to be, such as "act as an experienced copywriter", so its answers take on that expertise and style.
A creative toolkit for generating and editing AI video.
Search Engine Optimisation. Improving your website so it appears higher in Google and other search results.
Also known as: Search engine optimisation
A job you set an AI or automation to run by itself at set times, like a weekly report every Friday morning.
Extra hidden code on a web page that tells search engines and AI exactly what the content is, such as a business, a product or a definition.
Also known as: Structured data
The voice assistants from Apple and Amazon, used for questions, reminders, music and smart home control.
Packaged sets of instructions and resources that teach an AI how to do a specific job the same way every time.
OpenAI's AI video generator, which turns text descriptions into short video clips.
AI that turns spoken words into written text, used for transcribing meetings, dictation and subtitles.
Also known as: Transcription
The company behind Stable Diffusion.
An open-source AI image model that can be run on your own computer or used through many apps.
A helper agent given one part of a bigger job, so several parts of a task can be done at the same time.
An AI music generator that creates songs, including vocals, from a text description.
Hidden background instructions that tell an AI how to behave before you say anything, such as its role, tone and rules.
Also known as: Custom instructions
A setting that controls how predictable or creative an AI's answers are. Lower is more precise, higher is more varied.
AI that creates a picture from a written description.
AI that turns written text into natural-sounding spoken audio, used for voiceovers, audiobooks and accessibility.
Also known as: TTS
AI that creates a short video clip from a written description or a still image.
A small chunk of text, roughly three-quarters of a word, that AI reads and writes in. Usage limits and costs are often counted in tokens.
The huge collection of text, images or other information an AI learns from before you ever use it.
A setting in many AI tools that lets you choose whether your conversations can be used to improve the AI.
Also known as: Data controls
The design behind most modern AI language models. It lets the AI weigh up how every word in a passage relates to every other word.
The event that starts an automation, like a form being submitted or an email arriving.
A database built to store and search embeddings, often used so AI can find relevant information quickly.
Building software by describing what you want to an AI in plain English and letting it write the code.
A tool you talk to out loud to get things done or answers, such as Siri or Alexa.
A feature that lets you talk to an AI out loud and hear it answer, handy on the move.
A feature that lets an AI look things up on the internet and cite its sources, so answers can include up-to-date information.
An automatic message one app sends another the moment something happens, such as a payment being made.
A series of connected steps that run in order to complete a job, such as "new enquiry arrives, then send a reply, then add to the CRM".
Elon Musk's AI company, which makes the Grok chatbot.
A tool that connects your apps so tasks happen automatically, for example adding a new form submission to your email list.
A search where people get their answer on the results page and never click through to a website.
Asking an AI to do a task without giving it any examples first.
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