Glossary
AI and software development glossary
Short, plain-English definitions of the terms that come up when you plan AI, SaaS, mobile and web projects. Each term links to a deeper guide or service page.
- AEO (answer engine optimisation)
- Structuring content so a clear, self-contained answer can be extracted into featured snippets, voice answers and AI summaries. SEO vs AEO vs GEO
- AI agent
- Software that uses a large language model to plan and complete multi-step tasks by calling tools such as APIs, databases and email, rather than only replying to messages. AI agent development
- AI automation
- Using AI inside business workflows to handle tasks that involve reading, writing or deciding, such as triaging emails or extracting data from documents. AI automation services
- AI chatbot
- A conversational interface that understands natural language and answers questions, often grounded in a company's own content and able to hand off to a human. AI chatbot development
- AI guardrails
- Rules and checks around an AI system — input validation, output filtering, permissions and human approval — that keep it safe and on task.
- AI voice agent
- A phone assistant that understands speech, talks naturally and completes tasks such as booking appointments during the call. AI voice agents
- API
- An application programming interface: a defined way for software systems to exchange data and trigger actions, such as a payment gateway or CRM API. Back-end development
- CI/CD
- Continuous integration and continuous delivery: automated building, testing and deployment of code so releases are frequent and safe. DevOps & cloud
- CPO (charge point operator) platform
- Software an EV charging network uses to connect chargers, set tariffs, take payments, manage load and monitor stations. EV & mobility software
- Embeddings
- Numeric representations of text or images that capture meaning, used to find similar content in semantic search and RAG. RAG development
- ERP
- Enterprise resource planning software that brings operations such as inventory, orders, finance and suppliers into one system. Industry automation
- Fine-tuning
- Further training a model on your own examples to change its behaviour, style or performance on a narrow task. RAG vs fine-tuning
- GEO (generative engine optimisation)
- Building the authority, consistent facts and third-party evidence that make AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini trust and cite a brand. SEO vs AEO vs GEO
- Hallucination
- When an AI model produces a confident but incorrect or made-up answer. Grounding, citations and evaluation reduce it.
- Headless CMS
- A content management system that delivers content through an API to any front end instead of rendering pages itself. Headless CMS guide
- HIPAA
- The US law that sets privacy and security rules for protected health information. There is no official HIPAA certification for software; compliance is an organisational responsibility. Healthcare software
- HL7 FHIR
- A modern standard for exchanging healthcare data between systems such as EHRs, labs and patient apps through APIs. Healthcare software
- Human-in-the-loop
- A design where people review or approve AI outputs before they take effect, especially for high-impact actions.
- LLM (large language model)
- An AI model trained on large amounts of text that can understand and generate language, used for chat, summarising, drafting and reasoning. LLM integration
- Multi-tenancy
- A SaaS architecture where many customers share one platform while their data stays isolated from each other. Building scalable SaaS
- MVP (minimum viable product)
- The smallest version of a product that real users can use and pay for, built to validate demand before a full build. MVP development
- OCPP
- Open Charge Point Protocol, the open standard EV chargers use to communicate with management software. EV & mobility software
- Progressive web app (PWA)
- A website that can be installed and work offline like an app, built from a single web codebase. PWA vs native
- Prompt injection
- An attack where content an AI reads contains hidden instructions that try to make it ignore its rules or leak data.
- Proof of concept (PoC)
- A small experiment that tests whether an idea is technically feasible before investing in a full product. MVP vs prototype vs PoC
- RAG (retrieval-augmented generation)
- A technique where an AI first retrieves relevant passages from your own data, then answers using them, ideally with citations. RAG development
- SaaS (software as a service)
- Software delivered over the internet on a subscription, run by the provider rather than installed by the customer. SaaS development
- Server-side rendering (SSR)
- Generating a page's HTML on the server so users and search engines receive full content immediately. ReactJS development
- Time and material (T&M)
- A contract model where you pay for the actual time spent, allowing scope to change as the product evolves. Fixed price vs T&M
- Tool calling (function calling)
- The ability of an LLM to request that your code run a specific function or API with structured arguments, which is how AI agents take actions. AI agent development
- Vector database
- A database optimised to store embeddings and find the most similar items quickly, used in semantic search and RAG. RAG development