Glossary: agents and automation

14 pages, in alphabetical order. The whole glossary from A to Z

• You work in your programThe copilot suggestsYou read and correctYou confirm

  What an AI copilot is and how it differs from an agent

  An AI copilot is an assistant built into a program you already use, such as your email, documents or business software, and it helps you while you work without acting in your place.

• A recording or a live sessionThe model transcribes itCheck names, acronyms and numbersThe text becomes work

  Automatic transcription: what it is and how to use it

  Automatic transcription (speech to text) is the conversion of speech, recorded or live, into written text, done by an AI model.

• The document arrivesThe AI reads it and finds the fieldsConsistency checksTo the system or to a person

  What is data extraction from documents (IDP)?

  Data extraction from documents, also called IDP (intelligent document processing), is the use of AI to read invoices, orders, contracts or forms and pull out the fields you need, such as supplier, amounts, dates and codes, ready to load into your management system. It combines reading the text, understanding it and checking it.

• Describe the toolsThe model asks to use oneYour program runs itThe result goes back to the model

  What is function calling? AI that uses your software

  Function calling, or tool use, is the ability of an AI model to decide when to use an external tool, such as searching your management system or sending a message, and to prepare the right data to do it.

• The AI preparesNormal actions go aheadImportant ones waitA person approves

  What human in the loop means: a person in the AI process

  Human in the loop means designing a process with AI so that a person checks or approves the important steps before they take effect.

• The program publishes an MCP serverA compatible assistant connectsYou choose the permissionsThe AI uses your data

  What is MCP (Model Context Protocol)? A plain explanation

  MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard for connecting AI models to outside programs and data sources, such as your management software, email or a database, in a uniform way.

• One agent reads the requestAnother searches and writesA checker verifiesThe final result comes out

  What is a multi-agent system in AI?

  A multi-agent system is a set of AI agents, each with its own task and tools, that work together to complete a complex job. One looks for information, another writes, another checks, and the result passes from one to the next like in a small department.

• Choose the starting eventConnect ready-made blocksThe workflow runs by itselfIf it grows, low-code or code

  What no-code (and low-code) means for businesses

  No-code and low-code are ways of building software and automations with visual interfaces, dragging blocks and connecting them instead of writing code. With no-code you don't program at all; with low-code you add a little code only where you need it.

• An image or a scanned PDFOCR recognises the charactersAI understands the documentA person checks the doubtful cases

  What OCR is and how AI reads invoices and documents

  OCR (optical character recognition) is the technology that turns the text in an image or a scanned PDF into real text that you can copy, search and process.

• External text reaches the AIHidden instructions sit inside itThe model may carry them outDefence: few permissions

  What is prompt injection and why your business should care

  Prompt injection is an attack in which someone hides instructions inside a text that an AI reads, such as an email or a web page, to make it do something its user does not want.

• The robot opens the programsIt copies and pastes the dataIt saves and sends the summaryIf the screen changes, it stops

  What RPA is and how it differs from AI

  RPA, robotic process automation, is software that repeats on a computer the steps a person would take: open a program, copy a piece of data, paste it into a form, save. It follows fixed rules and does not understand content: it always runs the same sequence.

• An event happensThe service sends a notificationCheck the signature and duplicatesThe automation starts

  What is a webhook? A plain-English explanation

  A webhook is an automatic notification that one program sends to another when something happens: a new order, a payment, a completed form. Instead of asking over and over whether there is any news, the second program receives it the moment it happens.

• What an AI agent is, and how it differs from a chatbot

  A chatbot answers. An agent acts: it decides the steps, uses software and sees a task through.

• What are the guardrails of an AI agent?

  They are the limits you decide: what the agent can touch, what it must ask you about, and what it can never do.