AI Acronyms: The Complete List for Operators

Every AI acronym senior teams use in strategy reviews, vendor calls and roadmap meetings — defined by operators, not researchers.

This is the working list of AI acronyms senior operators actually need to know — LLM, RAG, NLP, AGI, GPT, MLOps and the rest of the stack you'll hear in any 2026 AI meeting. Each acronym links to a plain-English definition, a real-world example, and how the term shows up in strategy reviews and vendor calls.

AI moved from a research topic to a boardroom topic faster than the language could catch up. Rather than nodding past a term in the middle of a roadmap discussion, use this list as your reference — it's the same one we use ourselves.

The list — 45 acronyms

• Agent — AI Agent
• AGI — Artificial General Intelligence
• AI — Artificial Intelligence
• AIaaS — AI as a Service
• ANN — Artificial Neural Network
• ASR — Automatic Speech Recognition
• AutoML — Automated Machine Learning
• CNN — Convolutional Neural Network
• Context Window — Context Window
• CoT — Chain of Thought
• CV — Computer Vision
• Distillation — Model Distillation
• DPO — Direct Preference Optimization
• Embedding — Vector Embedding
• Embeddings — Vector Embeddings
• Eval — Model Evaluation
• Fine-tuning — Model Fine-tuning
• FSL — Few-Shot Learning
• GAN — Generative Adversarial Network
• GPT — Generative Pre-trained Transformer
• GPU — Graphics Processing Unit
• Guardrails — AI Guardrails
• Hallucination — Model Hallucination
• Inference — Model Inference
• LLM — Large Language Model
• LLMOps — Large Language Model Operations
• LoRA — Low-Rank Adaptation
• MCP — Model Context Protocol
• ML — Machine Learning
• MLOps — Machine Learning Operations
• MoE — Mixture of Experts
• Multimodal — Multimodal Model
• NLP — Natural Language Processing
• Quantization — Model Quantization
• RAG — Retrieval-Augmented Generation
• RLHF — Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback
• RNN — Recurrent Neural Network
• SFT — Supervised Fine-Tuning
• SOTA — State of the Art
• Token — Token
• TPU — Tensor Processing Unit
• TTS — Text-to-Speech
• Vector DB — Vector Database
• VRAM — Video Random Access Memory
• ZSL — Zero-Shot Learning