Lexicon

Practitioner-grade definitions for the terminology that gets thrown around in enterprise AI conversations.

189 items

Lexicon entryFoundation Models
Zero-Shot Learning
Understand zero-shot learning in enterprise LLMs — how models generalize to new tasks from instructions alone, with no examples. Practical use cases, toolchain, and enterprise tradeoffs.
Lexicon entryFoundation Models
In-Context Learning
Understand in-context learning (ICL) — how LLMs adapt to new tasks using only context window information. Enterprise applications, retrieval-augmented ICL, and cost management guide.
Lexicon entryRAG Pipelines & Patterns
Retrieval-Augmented Fine-Tuning
Learn how Retrieval-Augmented Fine-Tuning (RAFT) combines RAG and fine-tuning to produce models that reason over retrieved context. Enterprise architecture, toolchain, and deployment guide.
Lexicon entryFoundation Models
Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning (PEFT)
Master PEFT for enterprise LLM customization — LoRA, QLoRA, adapter layers, and prefix tuning that reduce fine-tuning compute by 90%+ without sacrificing performance. Full toolchain guide.
Lexicon entryFoundation Models
Adapter Layers
Understand adapter layers for LLM customization — small trainable modules inserted into frozen model weights for task-specific adaptation. Enterprise architecture, multi-tenant applications, and toolchain.
Lexicon entryFoundation Models
Soft Prompting / Prefix Tuning
Understand soft prompting and prefix tuning — PEFT techniques that learn continuous prompt embeddings to steer LLM behavior without discrete text. Enterprise applications, tradeoffs, and tools.
Lexicon entryEnterprise AI Readiness & Adoption
Center of Excellence (AI CoE)
Understand the AI Center of Excellence for the enterprise — how to design, staff, and operate a CoE that scales AI capabilities while maintaining consistent standards.
Lexicon entryAI Cost, FinOps & TCO
AI Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Understand AI Total Cost of Ownership for the enterprise — a comprehensive accounting of all costs associated with building, deploying, and maintaining AI systems over their full lifecycle.
Lexicon entryEnterprise AI Readiness & Adoption
AI ROI Measurement
Understand AI ROI Measurement for the enterprise — methodologies for quantifying the financial and strategic returns generated by AI investments across diverse use cases.
Lexicon entryAI Vendor Selection
Vendor Lock-In (AI)
Understand AI Vendor Lock-In for the enterprise — the risks of deep dependency on a single AI provider and the architectural and contractual strategies for preserving optionality.
Lexicon entryFoundation Models
Multi-Model Strategy
Understand Multi-Model Strategy for the enterprise — how to design, govern, and operate a portfolio of AI models that collectively outperform any single-model approach.
Lexicon entryAI Risk Management
AI Risk Management
Understand AI Risk Management for the enterprise — a structured approach to identifying, assessing, and mitigating the unique risks associated with developing and deploying AI systems.
Lexicon entryAI Governance & Compliance
Intellectual Property (AI-Generated)
Understand AI-Generated Intellectual Property for the enterprise — the legal landscape, ownership ambiguities, copyright risks, and governance practices surrounding content produced by AI systems.
Lexicon entryAI Governance & Compliance
AI Ethics Board
Understand the AI Ethics Board for the enterprise — how to design, staff, and empower an ethics governance body that ensures AI systems are developed and deployed responsibly.
Lexicon entryEnterprise AI Readiness & Adoption
Open Source AI Strategy
Understand Open Source AI Strategy for the enterprise — how to evaluate, adopt, govern, and contribute to open-source AI models and tooling while managing legal, security, and operational risks.
Lexicon entryEnterprise AI Readiness & Adoption
AI Talent / Skills Gap
Understand the AI Talent and Skills Gap for the enterprise — how to assess, address, and sustain the human capabilities required to execute an ambitious AI strategy.
Lexicon entryEnterprise AI Readiness & Adoption
AI Literacy
Understand AI Literacy for the enterprise — how to define, measure, and develop the foundational AI knowledge that every employee needs to work effectively and responsibly with AI tools.
Lexicon entryEnterprise AI Readiness & Adoption
AI Adoption Lifecycle
Understand the AI Adoption Lifecycle for the enterprise — the predictable stages organizations move through as they scale from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment and optimization.
Lexicon entryEnterprise AI Readiness & Adoption
AI Maturity Model
Understand the AI Maturity Model for the enterprise — a structured framework for assessing current AI capability levels across strategy, data, technology, talent, and governance dimensions.
Lexicon entryAI Governance & Compliance
Shadow AI / Unauthorized AI Use
Understand Shadow AI for the enterprise — the risks of employees using unapproved AI tools with corporate data and the governance strategies for managing unauthorized AI use effectively.
Lexicon entryAI Vendor Selection
AI Vendor Ecosystem
Understand the AI Vendor Ecosystem for the enterprise — how to map, evaluate, and strategically manage relationships across the complex landscape of AI infrastructure, platform, application, and tooling vendors.