Dictionary

Foundations

AI

Software that performs tasks normally requiring human judgement — in practice today, almost always a language model.

"AI" is a category, not a product. When a vendor says their tool "uses AI" in 2026, they almost always mean it sends your text to a large language model and shows you the reply.

That matters commercially, because it means the underlying capability is usually bought from the same handful of providers. What differs between vendors is not the intelligence — it is what they wrap around it: the data they give it, the actions they let it take, and the checks they run on the output.

When evaluating a tool, ask what it does around the model. That is where the actual product is.

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