Tech Jargon Watch

Jargon watch page is back.. You've heard them, you've read them, you’ve maybe even accidentally thrown it into a conversation. Tech jargon is evolving fast, so fast that we're drowning in it. This page provides a focused review of the trending tech jargon and less recent ones also that we wanted to highlight. So please join us in this exploration of the tumultuous tech jargon landscape.

• Agentic Engineering is an approach of coding with the help of an agent, but unlike vibe coding, the initial request involves much more work than just writing a prompt. The request is accompanied by additional information structured information, that put constraints to the agent's answer and forces it to check the quality of its answer, before returning it
• AI slop, this term designates a low-quality, either text,image or video, made using Generative AI tools, prioritizing quantity over quality of the output. The use of the verb "to slopify" is also appearing with the meaning of making something "slop".
• AI Model Poisoning occurs when malicious data is deliberately introduced into the training dataset of an AI model, causing the model to learn incorrect patterns and return biased resutls.
• De-influencing, act of rejecting trends, unfollowing influencer marketing, prioritizing value over hype.
• Generative AI, is a subset of AI modelsfocused on creating content – text, images, code, music – rather than just analyzing or interpreting existing data. These models generate new content, based on patterns "found" in training data, in response to a request written in natural language called the "prompt".
• Influencer marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves collaborating with individuals, so called influencers, who have a significant following and perceived influence within a specific niche or community to promote a product, service, or brand.
• Lights-out manufacturing or Dark Factory: this term had another meaning during the 19th and 20th centuries, it describes now a emerging type of factory in particular in China, that are fully automated, hence the term dark factory as there's no need to have light.[source via France Info (in french) : Chine : les dark factories, des usines sans ouvriers
• Gig economy is the economy related to a labor market characterized by short-term contracts or freelance work - the "gigs"-, which was facilitated by the emergence of online platforms like Uber or TaskRabbit. This kind of contracts offer flexibility but in general tipically lack the benefits and stability found in traditional employment.
• MCP or Models Context Protocol is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to tools, apps, and data sources in a consistent way without need for custom integration. Thanks to this standard, AI models can connect to real-wordl systems, as they move from just chating to also doing things, like reading files, querying databases, or calling APIs.
• RAG or Retrieval-Augmented Generation is technique based on which AI takes the user question, queries relevant information from external sources, and lets the LLM model write the answer based on this external data. It mainly helps AI give more accurate, up-to-date and grounded answers.
• Sabermetrics describes the baseball data analysis, baseball being a pioneering sport in the use of quantitative analysis, via the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
• Sycophantic AI describes a behavior of AI chatbots, flattering, pleasing, and not pushing back the users. This behavior is driven by the search for increased engagement. To learn more see this study published in March 2026
• Synthetic Media refers to content – images, videos, audio – that is wholly or partially generated by artificial intelligence, like for example deepfakes or AI generated videos.
• System Prompt is a set of "configuration" instructions given to an AI agent, that defines in particular its role, its tone and technical constraints.This prompt preceds the user prompt.
• Tool calling is the ability for AI model to access and interact with external systems, for example read a database, or write a fole or delete it.
• Vibe Coding is the action of interactively and iteratively coding in the context of chat with a LLM model. The user submits a message - in the form of a prompt - describing its request for code in natural language. Following this initial request, the iterative process will start: the agent returns a code, the user evaluates the provided code and request changes to the agent until the user is satisfied with code provided