2026 AI Buzzword Dictionary
Every industry loves its jargon. AI in 2026 is no exception. Here's your survival guide to sounding smart at meetings — with honest translations.
| Buzzword | What They Say | What It Actually Means | Eye-Roll Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentic AI | "AI that can autonomously take actions" | A while-loop with an LLM inside | Medium |
| Vibe Coding | "Programming by describing what you want" | Prompting AI to write code, then praying it works | High |
| Ralph Wiggum Pattern | "Autonomous coding loop with git persistence" | Leave Claude Code running overnight, hope for the best | Medium |
| OpenClaw | "Open-source personal AI agent" | Like Jarvis from Iron Man, but it keeps changing its name | Low |
| Moltbook | "The agent internet — where AI agents socialize" | Reddit for robots. Yes, really. | Maximum |
| Spec-Driven Development | "Write specs, AI writes code" | What we always should have done, now AI forces us to | Low |
| Context Engineering | "Optimizing what info you feed the AI" | Carefully choosing what to copy-paste into the chat | Medium |
| MCP | "Model Context Protocol — universal AI tool standard" | USB-C for AI tools. Took us 2 years instead of 10. Progress! | Low |
| A2A Protocol | "Agent-to-Agent communication" | WeChat group for AI agents | Medium |
| Agentic RL | "Training agents with reinforcement learning" | Teaching AI through trial-and-error, like training a puppy | Low |
| GraphRAG | "RAG with knowledge graphs" | Regular RAG but it actually understands relationships | Low |
| GPT-OSS | "OpenAI's first open-source model" | OpenAI finally realized open-source exists | Medium |
| Reasoning Models | "AI that thinks before answering" | AI that charges you for its internal monologue | High |
| Prompt Caching | "Reusing computed prompt results" | AI remembers common questions to save you money | Low |
| AI-Native Development | "Building software designed for AI from the ground up" | Writing better specs and letting AI do the typing | Medium |
| Hallucination | "AI confidently stating false information" | The AI equivalent of "fake it till you make it" | Low |
| Guardrails | "Safety constraints on AI behavior" | Teaching AI that "ignore all rules" is not a valid instruction | Low |
| Computer Use | "AI controlling mouse and keyboard" | Giving AI the ability to accidentally close your unsaved work | High |
| Token Economy | "Optimizing API costs through efficient token usage" | Corporate speak for "the AI bill is too high" | High |
| Model Distillation | "Training a small model from a big model's outputs" | The student becomes the (cheaper) teacher | Low |
How to Use This Dictionary
- At your next standup, casually drop: "I've been exploring the Ralph Wiggum pattern for our sprint backlog."
- Watch colleagues nod knowingly while secretly Googling it.
- Repeat with "Agentic RL" and "GraphRAG" for bonus points.
Buzzword Red Flags
If someone uses ALL of these in a single sentence, they're either a genius or selling you something:
"Our agentic AI platform leverages GraphRAG with MCP-compatible tools, spec-driven development workflows, and Ralph Wiggum autonomous coding loops to deliver AI-native solutions."
Translation: "We have a chatbot with a database."
Last updated: 2026-02-22