AI.
Also known as: Artificial Intelligence, USA: SI / Super Intelligence (US federal usage from Sept 2026)
AI is the huge field of getting computers to perform tasks that used to only be performed with real (mostly human) intelligence. This can include recognising images, understanding language, finding patterns, making predictions, or planning actions. AI has been around for several decades and is thought to have been born in the 1950s, but many of its underlying ideas are much older. The span of AI includes rules-based systems, machine learning, computer vision, robotics, and generative AI. The very recent breakthrough is generative AI (or Gen AI), which is often what people mean when they say AI. Generative AI can create text, images, audio, video, and software when prompted by a human, and often takes the form of a chat interface.
In the wild
“AI is the art and science of teaching machines to act and behave like humans”
Seen here: Antonio Weiss, AI Demystified
For AI users
Knowing that something has AI involved doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be better, faster, or cheaper. It's worth knowing what kind of AI is involved in the product you're using or buying, what outcome it supports, how you'd know if it's working or not, and how much it costs now and potentially in the future. Simpler technology or methods could do the job faster, more cheaply, or more safely. Using AI may also introduce risks that weren't there previously. In some cases the benefit is worth it, and in others it isn't.
For business leaders
There's a lot of pressure to adopt AI. Understand the problems your business is trying to solve first, and your strategy, before you start layering AI in. And remember that AI could include more old school AI, like machine learning or statistical methods, rather than generative AI. Just hearing that something is "AI" doesn't tell you what kind of AI, how sophisticated or useful it is, or even if it is better than using humans alone for the task. AI does have transformative potential via both efficiencies and also innovation, but it's not the main story. AI should be embedded into your core business strategy as an enabler or capability rather than being a strategy in itself.