Why learn the terms behind an AI tool?

Because the words on the screen decide what you can trust. If you know what a parsing rule, a human handoff or a policy engine does, you can set the tool up for your own work, check its output and explain it to a manager or a client, instead of clicking through a setup wizard and hoping.

Are these AI tools free?

Many have a free plan or a free trial. Each tool links to its card in the AI tools directory, which shows the pricing badge and a short description, and to the free Stepthrough lesson where there is one. Plans change often, so check the vendor’s pricing page before you commit.

How are the terms grouped?

Each term is listed under every tool on this page that uses it, so a term like live chat can appear under more than one product. Every term links to its own glossary page with a plain-English definition, an example from a free lesson, common confusions and an FAQ.

Terms behind the AI tools you use

Updated October 19, 2026 · By Robert Breen

AI tools come with their own vocabulary: parsing rules, bearer tokens, deflection rate, speaker diarization. This page groups 51 plain-English glossary terms by the 26 AI tools that use them, so before you set up a tool for work you can learn the words on its screens. Each tool links to its card in the AI tools directory and to the free lesson where you practice it.

Airia

An enterprise platform to build, secure and govern AI agents across your company’s tools and data. Good for onboarding, HR and policy agents with guardrails. See Airia in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Onboard New Clients Without the Back-and-Forth Using Airia.

Policy engine: A policy engine is software that checks each action an AI agent or automation wants to take against written rules, before the action runs. It answers allow, block or…
Role-based access control (RBAC): Role-based access control (RBAC) gives access by job role instead of person by person. You define roles such as owner, staff and client, decide what each role can see…

Captions

An AI video editor that captions talking-head videos, trims pauses, and adds eye contact, dubbing and AI avatars. See Captions in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Turn a Raw Client Video into a Captioned LinkedIn Clip using Captions.

Aspect ratio: Aspect ratio is the shape of a video, written as width to height. 16:9 is the wide shape of a laptop or TV, 9:16 is the tall shape for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, and 1:1…
Auto captions: Auto captions are on-screen words that an AI tool writes from a video's audio and times to the speech, so viewers can follow along with the sound off. On short social…

Chatbase

Build an AI agent trained on your own files, website pages and Q&A, test it in a playground, and add it to your site as a chat bubble. It can hand off to a person with a helpdesk ticket. Paid plans with a 7-day trial. See Chatbase in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Chatbase: Answer Customer FAQs with an AI Agent.

Chatbot fallback response: A chatbot fallback response is the set reply an AI chat assistant gives when it cannot find the answer in the material you gave it. Instead of guessing, it says it is…
Human handoff: A human handoff is the moment an AI chat assistant stops answering and passes the conversation to a person on your team. A good handoff carries the customer's name…
Knowledge base: A knowledge base (also written knowledgebase) is an organized collection of a business's reference information, such as services, prices, policies and how-tos, kept in…
Live chat (website chat widget): Live chat is a chat box on your website, usually a bubble in the bottom corner, where a visitor types a question and a person on your team, or an AI assistant, answers…
Ticket deflection (deflection rate): Ticket deflection is when a customer's question gets answered by self-service, such as an FAQ page or an AI chat agent, so nobody on your team has to open a ticket or…

Dext

Extracts data from receipts and invoices and posts it to your accounting software. See Dext in the AI tools directory.

AI data entry: AI data entry means an AI model reads a document or message, such as an invoice PDF, a receipt photo, an email or a form answer, pulls out the fields you need, and an…

Docparser

Pull data out of PDFs, Word files and scanned documents such as invoices and bank statements, then send it to Excel, Google Sheets or other apps. Free trial, no credit card. See Docparser in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Docparser: Pull Invoice Data from PDFs into a Spreadsheet.

Document parsing: Document parsing is software reading a stack of similar documents, such as vendor invoices or bank statements, and pulling the same fields out of each one into rows and…
Intelligent document processing: Intelligent document processing, or IDP, is software that reads business documents such as invoices, receipts, forms and contracts, works out what each one is, pulls…
Line items: Line items are the individual rows on an invoice, each one a product or service with its description, quantity, unit rate and amount. Line-item extraction is pulling…
Parsing rules: Parsing rules are the instructions inside a document parser that say where to find each field and how to read it. One rule finds the invoice number, another the date…
Searchable PDF: A searchable PDF contains real text that software can select, search, copy and read. A scanned PDF is a photo of a page, so to a computer it is a picture until OCR…

Foxit PDF Editor

Edit, sign and review PDFs, with an AI assistant that summarizes and checks documents. See Foxit PDF Editor in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: AI Contract Review in 10 Minutes using Foxit AI.

AI PDF summarizer: An AI PDF summarizer is a tool that reads a PDF, such as a contract, report or policy, and writes a short plain-English version of it. Good ones also cite the page or…
Chat with PDF: Chat with PDF means uploading a PDF to an AI tool and asking it questions in plain English, like "when does this renew?" The AI answers from the file you gave it, and…
Contract key terms: Contract key terms are the handful of clauses that decide what a deal really costs and how you get out of it: the length of the term, the fees, price increases, renewal…
Digital signature: A digital signature is a certificate-based way of signing a document. A digital ID tied to the signer is used to seal the file, so anyone can check who signed it and…
Document comparison: Document comparison is a tool that lines up two versions of the same file, such as the contract you agreed to and the one you were sent back, and marks every word that…
E-signature: An e-signature, or electronic signature, is a way of signing a document electronically to show you agree to it, such as typing your name, clicking an "I agree" box or…
Fillable PDF: A fillable PDF is a form with interactive fields built into it: text boxes you can click and type in, check boxes and sometimes a signature field. A flat PDF only shows…
Redline: A redline is a copy of a contract with proposed changes marked up, so the other side can see exactly what was deleted, added or reworded. The name comes from the red…
Searchable PDF: A searchable PDF contains real text that software can select, search, copy and read. A scanned PDF is a photo of a page, so to a computer it is a picture until OCR…

Gamma

Turns notes or a prompt into a polished presentation, document or web page in minutes. See Gamma in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: A Presentation from Your Notes in 5 Minutes (Gamma).

AI presentation maker: An AI presentation maker turns rough notes or a short prompt into a designed slide deck. You paste in text, choose a style, and the tool builds the slides, which you…

Guardian

Approval and audit layer for n8n workflows and AI agents: each action is checked against your policy first, and is allowed, held for a person to approve, or denied, with a tamper-evident record. Free to start, no credit card. See Guardian in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Guardian: Make Your n8n AI Agent Ask Before It Emails a Customer.

AI agent permissions: AI agent permissions are the settings that decide which apps, data and actions an AI agent may use, and which of them it may use alone. A common split: reading is…
Approval workflow: An approval workflow is the set path a request follows before anyone acts on it: it is submitted, checked, approved or sent back, then carried out. Automation moves the…
Audit trail: An audit trail is a running record of what happened, when, and based on what, kept so anyone can look back and check. For an automation, it is the log of every item it…
Human in the loop: Human in the loop means designing an AI process so a person reviews, edits or approves the AI's work before it takes effect. The AI does the slow part, such as drafting…
Policy engine: A policy engine is software that checks each action an AI agent or automation wants to take against written rules, before the action runs. It answers allow, block or…
Sandbox environment: A sandbox environment is an isolated copy of a system where code, changes or AI agents can run without touching real data, real customers or the live site. Whatever…

KDAN PDF

PDF reader and editor from KDAN for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, with an AI Chatbot that summarizes and explains long PDFs. Free plan with a limited chatbot allowance; full AI features in Document 365 AI+ (USD 99.99 a year). See KDAN PDF in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: KDAN: Get a Vendor Contract's Key Terms with AI Chatbot.

AI PDF summarizer: An AI PDF summarizer is a tool that reads a PDF, such as a contract, report or policy, and writes a short plain-English version of it. Good ones also cite the page or…
Chat with PDF: Chat with PDF means uploading a PDF to an AI tool and asking it questions in plain English, like "when does this renew?" The AI answers from the file you gave it, and…
Contract key terms: Contract key terms are the handful of clauses that decide what a deal really costs and how you get out of it: the length of the term, the fees, price increases, renewal…

Kosuke

AI agent (Sensei) that runs each website or app change in its own branch and sandbox, then brings back a prototype, a recording and a verdict for you to judge. Starter from $20 a month, with $10 in free credits. See Kosuke in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Preview Every Website Change Before Your Client Sees It using Kosuke.

Git branch: A Git branch is a separate line of work inside a project's code history. Changes made on a branch stay away from the main version, the one the live site runs, until…
Preview deployment: A preview deployment is a temporary, working copy of a website or app with one change applied, running at its own link. You and your client can click through it on a…
Pull request (PR): A pull request (PR) is a request to merge one branch's changes into the main version of a project. It shows exactly what changed, collects comments and test results…
Sandbox environment: A sandbox environment is an isolated copy of a system where code, changes or AI agents can run without touching real data, real customers or the live site. Whatever…

Lindy

Build AI assistants that handle email, scheduling, meeting notes and lead follow-up in plain English. Hundreds of templates for common office jobs. See Lindy in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Answer Client Emails in Half the Time using Lindy.

AI agent permissions: AI agent permissions are the settings that decide which apps, data and actions an AI agent may use, and which of them it may use alone. A common split: reading is…
Human in the loop: Human in the loop means designing an AI process so a person reviews, edits or approves the AI's work before it takes effect. The AI does the slow part, such as drafting…

Litescrape

A low-cost search and scraping API you can call from n8n and other automations. See Litescrape in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Litescrape in n8n: Swap SerpApi for a Cheaper Search API.

API endpoint: An API endpoint is one specific address in an API, such as a URL ending in /users or /v1/run, that does one job. You send a request to it with a method like GET or…
Bearer token: A bearer token is a secret string, usually your API key, that you send with each API request in a header called Authorization, written as the word Bearer, a space, then…
Web scraping: Web scraping is using software to read web pages and pull out the data you want, such as posts, prices or listings, instead of copying it by hand. You can scrape pages…

n8n

A visual workflow builder that connects your apps and adds AI agents to the steps in between. Runs in the cloud or free on your own server. See n8n in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: n8n AI Agent Tutorial: Save Social Media Ideas to Google Sheets.

Agent orchestration: Agent orchestration is the coordination of an AI agent's work: splitting a job into steps, choosing which tool, model or helper agent handles each one, passing results…
AI agent permissions: AI agent permissions are the settings that decide which apps, data and actions an AI agent may use, and which of them it may use alone. A common split: reading is…
AI data entry: AI data entry means an AI model reads a document or message, such as an invoice PDF, a receipt photo, an email or a form answer, pulls out the fields you need, and an…
API endpoint: An API endpoint is one specific address in an API, such as a URL ending in /users or /v1/run, that does one job. You send a request to it with a method like GET or…
RSS feed: An RSS feed is a special web address that lists a site's newest posts, articles or episodes in a fixed format, so a reader app or an automation can check it for…
Social listening: Social listening is tracking what people say online about your brand, your competitors and the problems your product solves, on places like Reddit and social media…

Nanonets

AI agents that automate accounts payable, claims and order processing and deliver clean data to systems like SAP and Salesforce. Starts with a free trial. See Nanonets in the AI tools directory.

AI data entry: AI data entry means an AI model reads a document or message, such as an invoice PDF, a receipt photo, an email or a form answer, pulls out the fields you need, and an…

Opus Clip

Turns long videos into short clips for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, with captions and virality scores. See Opus Clip in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Opus Clip: Turn One Video into Ranked Social Clips.

Aspect ratio: Aspect ratio is the shape of a video, written as width to height. 16:9 is the wide shape of a laptop or TV, 9:16 is the tall shape for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, and 1:1…
Auto captions: Auto captions are on-screen words that an AI tool writes from a video's audio and times to the speech, so viewers can follow along with the sound off. On short social…
Content repurposing: Content repurposing means taking one long piece of content, such as a tips video, a webinar or a client guide, and cutting or rewriting it into many smaller pieces for…

Parseur

AI data extraction that pulls fields out of PDFs, emails and other documents and sends them to Zapier, Make, n8n or your own apps. The free plan includes 20 pages a month. See Parseur in the AI tools directory.

AI data entry: AI data entry means an AI model reads a document or message, such as an invoice PDF, a receipt photo, an email or a form answer, pulls out the fields you need, and an…

Presentations.AI

Creates brand-consistent presentations from a prompt or document. See Presentations.AI in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Presentations.AI: Build a Quarterly Sales Review Deck from Your Notes.

AI presentation maker: An AI presentation maker turns rough notes or a short prompt into a designed slide deck. You paste in text, choose a style, and the tool builds the slides, which you…
Brand kit: A brand kit is a saved set of your company's visual basics, usually the logo, brand colours and fonts, that a design or presentation tool applies to everything it…
Slide outline: A slide outline is the plan of a presentation: the list of slides in order, with a title and the main point of each one. AI presentation makers work from an outline…

ProLevelMax

Pay-per-call data API for Reddit posts and comment threads, TikTok, YouTube, X and 150+ other platforms. Call it from n8n with one HTTP Request node, or from an AI assistant. New users get $1 of free credit. See ProLevelMax in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: ProLevelMax in n8n: Keep Your Reddit Workflow Alive After the RSS Shutdown.

API endpoint: An API endpoint is one specific address in an API, such as a URL ending in /users or /v1/run, that does one job. You send a request to it with a method like GET or…
API pagination: API pagination is when an API returns a long list in chunks, called pages, instead of all at once. Each response holds one page of results and a marker, such as a page…
Bearer token: A bearer token is a secret string, usually your API key, that you send with each API request in a header called Authorization, written as the word Bearer, a space, then…
RSS feed: An RSS feed is a special web address that lists a site's newest posts, articles or episodes in a fixed format, so a reader app or an automation can check it for…
Social listening: Social listening is tracking what people say online about your brand, your competitors and the problems your product solves, on places like Reddit and social media…
Web scraping: Web scraping is using software to read web pages and pull out the data you want, such as posts, prices or listings, instead of copying it by hand. You can scrape pages…

Runable

A general AI agent that turns a brief into finished research, reports, slides, carousels and sites. Good for solo founders who need a one-person team, on a free plan with daily credits. See Runable in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Turn a Messy Client Brief into a Finished Proposal Deck using Runable.

Agent orchestration: Agent orchestration is the coordination of an AI agent's work: splitting a job into steps, choosing which tool, model or helper agent handles each one, passing results…
AI presentation maker: An AI presentation maker turns rough notes or a short prompt into a designed slide deck. You paste in text, choose a style, and the tool builds the slides, which you…
Brand kit: A brand kit is a saved set of your company's visual basics, usually the logo, brand colours and fonts, that a design or presentation tool applies to everything it…
Slide outline: A slide outline is the plan of a presentation: the list of slides in order, with a title and the main point of each one. AI presentation makers work from an outline…

Signatoro

An email signature platform for people and AI agents: save your signature once, and your team, your automations and every AI agent you connect use the same one. Make, n8n and Zapier fetch the current version over an API with one HTTP step. The forever-free plan includes the API. See Signatoro in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Add AI to Make.com: ChatGPT Writes a Personal Reply, Gmail Sends It.

Bearer token: A bearer token is a secret string, usually your API key, that you send with each API request in a header called Authorization, written as the word Bearer, a space, then…

Slidebean

A pitch deck app for startups: its AI drafts a full investor deck from your website or a short company summary, with templates and financial model tools. See Slidebean in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Turn a One-Page Business Plan into an Investor-Ready Deck using Slidebean.

AI presentation maker: An AI presentation maker turns rough notes or a short prompt into a designed slide deck. You paste in text, choose a style, and the tool builds the slides, which you…
Slide outline: A slide outline is the plan of a presentation: the list of slides in order, with a title and the main point of each one. AI presentation makers work from an outline…

Smallpdf

Online PDF tools to compress, convert, merge, edit and sign, plus AI PDF tools that summarize a document and answer questions about it with clickable page references. The free plan includes the AI tools with limits; Pro adds unlimited use and a 7-day free trial. See Smallpdf in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Smallpdf: Get the Key Points of a 25-Page PDF in 5 Minutes.

AI PDF summarizer: An AI PDF summarizer is a tool that reads a PDF, such as a contract, report or policy, and writes a short plain-English version of it. Good ones also cite the page or…
Chat with PDF: Chat with PDF means uploading a PDF to an AI tool and asking it questions in plain English, like "when does this renew?" The AI answers from the file you gave it, and…
Contract key terms: Contract key terms are the handful of clauses that decide what a deal really costs and how you get out of it: the length of the term, the fees, price increases, renewal…
Digital signature: A digital signature is a certificate-based way of signing a document. A digital ID tied to the signer is used to seal the file, so anyone can check who signed it and…
E-signature: An e-signature, or electronic signature, is a way of signing a document electronically to show you agree to it, such as typing your name, clicking an "I agree" box or…
Fillable PDF: A fillable PDF is a form with interactive fields built into it: text boxes you can click and type in, check boxes and sometimes a signature field. A flat PDF only shows…

Softr

Turn Airtable, Google Sheets or databases into client portals and internal tools. See Softr in the AI tools directory.

Role-based access control (RBAC): Role-based access control (RBAC) gives access by job role instead of person by person. You define roles such as owner, staff and client, decide what each role can see…

Speak AI

Upload or record calls and interviews to get transcripts, AI summaries and themes, then chat with your recordings, built for sales and research teams. Free account, no credit card. See Speak AI in the AI tools directory.

Keyword extraction: Keyword extraction is when software scans a transcript or document and lists the important words and phrases in it, usually with a count of how often each appears. Some…
Speaker diarization: Speaker diarization is the part of a transcription tool that listens to a recording and works out who spoke when, splitting the audio into turns by voice. It answers…
Speech-to-text: Speech-to-text is software that listens to spoken audio and writes down the words as text. It is also called speech recognition or automatic transcription. It powers…
Thematic analysis: Thematic analysis is the job of reading interviews, survey comments or call notes and sorting what people said into a short list of repeated themes, such as "the first…
Voice of the customer (VoC): Voice of the customer, or VoC, is a routine for capturing what clients actually say about your service, in interviews, calls, reviews and surveys, and turning it into…
Word error rate (WER): Word error rate, or WER, is the standard measure of how accurate a transcript is. You compare it with what was really said and count the words that were swapped…

Tawk.to

Free live chat software that brings web chat, email, WhatsApp, and SMS into one shared inbox. Its AI Assist answers routine questions from your uploaded files and FAQ pages, and humans can step in at any time. See Tawk.to in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: tawk.to: Answer Website Questions After Hours.

First response time: First response time is how long a customer waits between asking a question, by email, chat or form, and getting the first real reply. It is usually measured in minutes…
Human handoff: A human handoff is the moment an AI chat assistant stops answering and passes the conversation to a person on your team. A good handoff carries the customer's name…
Live chat (website chat widget): Live chat is a chat box on your website, usually a bubble in the bottom corner, where a visitor types a question and a person on your team, or an AI assistant, answers…

Wispr Flow

Voice dictation that types clean, formatted text in any app as you speak. See Wispr Flow in the AI tools directory or take the free lesson: Wispr Flow: Answer Emails and Write AI Prompts by Voice.

Custom vocabulary: A custom vocabulary, often called a personal dictionary, is a list of words you add to a voice tool so it spells them right: client names, product names, firm terms and…
Speech-to-text: Speech-to-text is software that listens to spoken audio and writes down the words as text. It is also called speech recognition or automatic transcription. It powers…
Voice dictation: Voice dictation is talking instead of typing: you speak, and your words appear as text where your cursor is, in an email, a chat box or a document. AI dictation tools…
Word error rate (WER): Word error rate, or WER, is the standard measure of how accurate a transcript is. You compare it with what was really said and count the words that were swapped…

Frequently asked questions

Why learn the terms behind an AI tool?: Because the words on the screen decide what you can trust. If you know what a parsing rule, a human handoff or a policy engine does, you can set the tool up for your own work, check its output and explain it to a manager or a client, instead of clicking through a setup wizard and hoping.
Are these AI tools free?: Many have a free plan or a free trial. Each tool links to its card in the AI tools directory, which shows the pricing badge and a short description, and to the free Stepthrough lesson where there is one. Plans change often, so check the vendor’s pricing page before you commit.
How are the terms grouped?: Each term is listed under every tool on this page that uses it, so a term like live chat can appear under more than one product. Every term links to its own glossary page with a plain-English definition, an example from a free lesson, common confusions and an FAQ.

All AI glossary terms, A to Z · The full AI tools directory