Glossary of AI and business technology terms

Each term is defined in two to four sentences, in the words we would use across a desk. Where an article explains it properly, the definition links to it. The terms are grouped by subject: AI, data and law, security and devices, and software and buying.

What do the AI terms mean?

On-device AI

AI that runs on the computer or phone in front of you instead of in a vendor's data centre. Nothing you type or attach is sent anywhere, it works without internet, and there is no charge per question. The model is smaller than the big cloud ones. See on-device AI vs cloud AI.

Cloud AI

AI that runs in a vendor's data centre. Your prompt and any file you attach travel there to be processed, under the terms of your plan. It offers the largest models and is usually paid per user or per use.

Private AI

AI that works on your data without that data leaving your control. It may run on the device, on your own server, or with a provider under strict terms. The test is whether you can say exactly which computers a question touched. See sovereign AI and private AI.

Sovereign AI

The wider idea that a company, or a country, decides where its AI runs, who can reach it and which law applies to it. For a business it comes down to control over location and access, not to a label on a product. The guide to India's technology ecosystem lists the questions to ask a vendor who uses the word.

Large language model

The kind of AI program behind chat assistants: it has learned patterns from a very large amount of text and writes a reply one word at a time. Large models need powerful computers in data centres. They are capable and can still be confidently wrong.

Small language model

A language model compact enough to run on an ordinary computer, with memory needs of a few gigabytes. It handles everyday work such as drafting, summarising and sorting, and is weaker than a large model at long, difficult tasks. See do you need an AI PC?

AI agent

An assistant that does not only answer but acts: it opens apps, fills forms, sends messages or changes files. Because it acts, a person should approve anything with real consequences. See AI agents at work.

Prompt

What you type or say to an AI assistant, together with any file you give it. With a cloud assistant the prompt leaves your computer, which is why what goes into it matters.

Prompt injection

An attack in which instructions are hidden inside content the AI reads, such as an email or a web page, to make it do something its user did not ask for. It is the main reason an AI that can act needs approval steps and limits on what it may touch.

Shadow AI

The use of AI tools at work that the company has not approved and cannot see, such as an employee pasting a client contract into a public chatbot. A ban rarely stops it; a short rule and a convenient approved tool do. See shadow AI and staff using public AI with company data.

AI PC

A marketing name for a computer with a processor designed to run AI on the device. In Microsoft's sense, a Copilot+ PC needs an NPU, 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. Small models increasingly run on ordinary PCs too, so an AI PC is worth buying when you are replacing machines anyway, not only to get AI.

NPU

Neural processing unit: a part of a processor built to run AI calculations efficiently. It is what distinguishes an AI PC. On-device AI does not always need one.

Business intelligence

Turning the data a company already has, such as sales, receivables and stock, into answers the owner can act on. It used to mean analysts and dashboards. It can now mean asking a question in plain language and getting a figure, provided the tool shows the query it ran. See business intelligence without a data team.

Human in the loop

A rule that a person must review or approve before an AI's output is used or its action is carried out. It keeps a named person responsible. It works best when the approval is built into the software and not left to habit.

What do the data and legal terms mean?

DPDP Act

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, India's law on personal data, passed in August 2023, with Rules notified on 14 November 2025. It makes a company answerable for the personal data it holds, wherever that data is stored and whoever stores it. See the DPDP Act checklist.

Data Fiduciary

The DPDP Act's term for the organisation that decides why and how personal data is used. If your company collects data about customers or employees, it is a Data Fiduciary for that data and carries the duties under the Act.

Data Principal

The person the data is about: a customer, an employee, a job applicant. The Act gives Data Principals rights to see, correct and erase their data.

Data Processor

A vendor that handles personal data on your behalf, such as a payroll service or a cloud provider. If a processor loses your data, the question still comes to you as the Data Fiduciary.

Personal data

Any information about a person who can be identified from it: a name with a phone number, a salary record, a PAN, a medical leave note. Most business records contain some.

Data residency

The country in which data is stored, and, for AI, the country in which it is processed. The two can differ: documents may be stored in India and read by an AI elsewhere. See where is your AI processed?

Data localisation

A legal requirement that certain data be kept inside a country. The DPDP Act does not impose this in general, though the Government can restrict transfers and some regulated sectors have their own rules. For most companies, keeping data in India is a choice.

Data breach

Any event in which personal or confidential data is exposed, lost or accessed by someone who should not have it. A lost unencrypted laptop is a breach. The DPDP framework requires breaches to be reported to the Board and to the people affected.

CERT-In

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, the national agency for cyber security incidents. Its directions require specified incidents to be reported within six hours of noticing them, and it publishes baseline guidance for smaller businesses. See the 2026 security baseline.

Audit trail

A record of who did what, and when: who approved an invoice, who changed a salary, who opened a file. It is what you show an auditor, and what you read after something goes wrong.

What do the security and device terms mean?

Operating system

The software that runs the computer itself and everything on it: the desktop, files, settings, security and updates. It decides which applications a PC can run. The guide to operating systems for companies covers how to choose one.

End of support

The date after which a vendor stops issuing security fixes for a product. The product still works, but newly found weaknesses are no longer repaired. Windows 10 reached it on 14 October 2025. See what to do with old PCs.

Full-disk encryption

Scrambling everything on a computer's disk so that it cannot be read without the owner's sign-in. It turns a lost laptop from a data breach into the cost of a new machine. See disk encryption and device management, for owners.

Recovery key

A long code that unlocks an encrypted disk when the normal sign-in fails. Encryption without a safely stored recovery key can turn a forgotten password into permanent data loss, so decide where keys are kept before switching encryption on.

Secure Boot

A check made when a computer starts, confirming that the system software it is about to load is signed by a trusted source and has not been altered. It stops certain kinds of malicious software from starting before the operating system does. It is a setting in the PC's firmware.

Passkey

A replacement for a password: a key stored on your phone or computer and unlocked by a fingerprint, face or device PIN. There is nothing to type, so there is nothing to phish, guess or reuse.

Multi-factor authentication

Signing in with two different proofs, usually a password plus a code or an approval on a phone. It stops most attacks that rely on a stolen password. Every company should have it on email and on anything involving money.

Single sign-on

One account that signs a person in to several tools. It means one account to create when someone joins and one to close when they leave, which is as much a security benefit as a convenience.

Device management

Enrolling company computers and phones in a system that lets an administrator see them, apply settings and updates, require encryption, and lock or wipe a device that goes missing. It is often shortened to MDM.

Work profile

A separate, managed area on an Android phone that keeps company apps and data apart from personal ones. The company can wipe the work profile without touching the owner's photographs and messages.

Firewall

A filter that decides which network connections may reach a computer and which may leave it. It should be on, on every machine. DNX Guard shows its state alongside encryption and updates.

Signed update

A software update carrying a digital signature that proves who published it and that it was not altered on the way. A system that installs only signed updates cannot be handed a tampered one.

Sandbox

A locked-down environment in which a program runs with only the access it needs. A sandboxed AI service with no network access cannot send what it reads anywhere, whatever it is asked to do.

What do the software and buying terms mean?

HRMS

Human resource management system: software for employee records, leave, attendance, payroll, expenses and related documents. For a small Indian company the test is whether it handles your leave rules and the statutory deductions correctly. See HRMS for small companies in India.

Vendor lock-in

A situation in which leaving a product would cost so much, in lost data, retraining or broken processes, that you stay even when the price rises. It is avoided when buying, by checking that your data comes out in a standard format. See vendor lock-in.

Open document format

A file format whose specification is published, so that anyone may build software to read and write it without a fee or permission. ODF is one such standard, and OOXML is the standardised form of the Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats. See open document formats.

Software as a service

Software that runs on the vendor's servers and is rented, usually by the month, instead of being installed and owned. It is quick to start and needs little upkeep. The trade is a recurring bill and data held by someone else.

Per-user pricing

Charging for software by the number of people who use it each month. The bill then grows with headcount, not with revenue. See what software really costs a 25-person company.

Self-hosting

Running software on a server your company controls, in your office or in a data centre you rent, instead of using the vendor's cloud. You decide where the data is. You also take on keeping the server running, updated and backed up.

On-premises

Installed and run on your own site, on your own machines. It is the strictest form of self-hosting, often shortened to on-prem.

API

Application programming interface: a way for one program to read and write another program's data directly. Whether an older system has one largely decides how easily it can be connected to anything else. See same data typed into ERP, CRM and Excel.

Workflow automation

Having software carry a repeated piece of work through its steps: collect a request, route it to the right approver, record the decision, tell the next person. The people who decide stay; the waiting and retyping go. See invoices stuck in approval.