AI-native
In plain wordsDescribes a product, company or person built around AI from the start, rather than one that added AI features to older ways of working.
Designed from the outset around AI capabilities rather than retrofitted with them. Of products, the term implies that core workflows assume a model in the loop — natural-language interfaces, generated rather than hand-built content, agentsAI agent, n.: An AI system that does not just answer but acts: given a goal, it decides on steps, uses tools such as a browser or code editor, checks the results and keeps going until the job is done. carrying out tasks — so that removing the AI would leave little; of companies, it implies small teams, pervasive internal use of AI tools and organization around automation; of people, by analogy with 'digital native', it denotes those who learned their trade with AI assistants as a default. Like 'cloud-native' and 'mobile-first', it is partly descriptive and partly a marketing and investment label, used to distinguish new entrants from incumbents and from a mere wrapperwrapper, n.: A product built mostly on top of someone else's AI model, adding a simple interface or a few instructions; often used as a put-down implying the product is easy to copy. or bolt-on feature.
An AI-native support team of four now handles what used to take forty.
Origin
Modeled on 'digital native' (popularized by Marc Prensky in 2001) and 'cloud-native'. The phrase appeared in telecommunications and enterprise-software marketing by about 2020 — 'AI-native' network designs were proposed for 6G mobile systems — and became ubiquitous in startup and investor language after ChatGPT's release in 2022.
Related
- wrapperwrapper, n.: A product built mostly on top of someone else's AI model, adding a simple interface or a few instructions; often used as a put-down implying the product is easy to copy.
- moatmoat, n.: A lasting business advantage that keeps competitors out, like a castle's moat; in AI, the question of whether any company can stay ahead when rivals and free models catch up quickly.
- copilotcopilot, n.: An AI assistant built into software that works alongside a person — suggesting code, drafting text or answering questions — while the person stays in charge, like a co-pilot beside the captain.
- AI agentAI agent, n.: An AI system that does not just answer but acts: given a goal, it decides on steps, uses tools such as a browser or code editor, checks the results and keeps going until the job is done.
- vibe codingvibe coding, n.: Programming by conversation: you ask an AI for what you want, try out what it produces and ask again until it works, trusting the code without really reading it.
- Software 3.0Software 3.0, n.: Andrej Karpathy's name for programming computers by writing plain-language instructions for AI models, following traditional code (Software 1.0) and trained neural networks (Software 2.0).
Mentioned in
AI-poweredAI-powered, adj.: Described as using artificial intelligence to work. The label appears on everything from search engines to toothbrushes and often says little about how much AI is really involved., moatmoat, n.: A lasting business advantage that keeps competitors out, like a castle's moat; in AI, the question of whether any company can stay ahead when rivals and free models catch up quickly., wrapperwrapper, n.: A product built mostly on top of someone else's AI model, adding a simple interface or a few instructions; often used as a put-down implying the product is easy to copy., crackedcracked, adj.: Tech slang praising someone as exceptionally, almost unfairly, skilled; a 'cracked engineer' is a prodigy who ships remarkable work very fast.