AI Automation Glossary
The AI and automation words you will run into, explained in plain English.
A
Agentic AI
AI that acts as an agent — planning, reasoning, and carrying out tasks on its own rather than answering one prompt at a time. It is the shift from AI as a tool to AI as a worker.
AI Agents
AI systems that can take in what is around them, make decisions, and act to reach a goal. Unlike chatbots that follow a script, AI agents can handle multi-step jobs, use tools, and adapt to new situations.
Autoshoring
Using AI agents to do the business tasks you would otherwise send to an offshore team or handle by hand. Autoshoring brings the work back in-house with AI that runs around the clock for a fraction of the cost. At Automated Edge it is not a separate product — it is one of the things an Edgekeeper brain does once it is in place.
D
Digital Workers
AI agents set up to do a specific job in a business — receptionist, data entry, scheduling. Digital workers run continuously and can be put in place alongside your human team.
H
HIPAA-Compliant AI
AI tools and systems set up to meet the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules for handling protected health information (PHI): encryption, access controls, a log of everything the AI looked at, and a Business Associate Agreement (BAA). No tool is compliant on its own — how it is set up decides it.
I
Intelligent Automation
AI, machine learning, and robotic process automation (RPA) working together to run a business process from start to finish. Unlike basic automation that follows fixed rules, it can handle exceptions, learn from data, and make judgment calls.
R
RPA (Robotic Process Automation)
Software that automates repetitive, rule-based tasks by copying the clicks and keystrokes a person would make. RPA bots follow a fixed script and cannot adapt to anything new, which makes them less flexible than AI agents.