In just the past year, advancements in artificial intelligence have introduced transformative new ways to automate complicated tasks. Your company won't be able to take full advantage of this new technology, however, if you don't understand how it works.

To help you make sense of all things A.I., we're building a living document to explain all the hard-to-understand terms around A.I. We'll continue to update this guide with everything you need to know about A.I. These definitions were written with the help of Tiago Cardoso, principal product manager at digital transformation firm Hyland.

1. A.I.

A field of science dedicated to creating machines and computer programs capable of recreating the cognitive functions of the human brain, such as making decisions through logical reasoning, recognizing and categorizing objects, and learning new things.

Think of it this way: A.I. is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of technologies, but any program that processes information to perform a task can be considered A.I.