The glossary for people who read footnotes
Short, careful entries on the terms that matter in enterprise AI. Each one is dated, cited, and reviewed by a named editor before publication. We skip the terms a general-interest AI glossary already covers and focus on the ones that determine budget and risk.
- 01Protocol 6 min
Model Context Protocol (MCP)
The specification, the history, the three roles, and the fourth role that emerged in production.
Read - 02Protocol 5 min
MCP Gateway
The authorization- and observability-aware proxy every enterprise ends up building or buying.
Read - 03Architecture 6 min
Agentic RAG
Retrieval inside a plan. When it earns its seat and when it is a tax.
Read - 04Observability 5 min
Agent observability
The emerging category. What counts as observable, and what Datadog, Braintrust, and Phoenix are all chasing.
Read - 05Governance 7 min Published April 2026
ISO/IEC 42001:2023
The first certifiable AI management standard. Structure, annexes, certification process, and how it relates to NIST AI RMF.
Read - 06Governance 6 min Published April 2026
NIST AI Risk Management Framework
The four-function framework (GOVERN, MAP, MEASURE, MANAGE) US federal agencies and most enterprises reference by default.
Read - 07Governance 6 min Published April 2026
Shadow AI
What every mature governance program discovers at audit: unsanctioned AI tools, SaaS-embedded AI, team-built integrations. How to surface it.
Read - 08Governance 6 min Published April 2026
Agent washing
Gartner's term for products marketed as agentic that are workflow-with-natural-language-input. The five tells we use to screen demos.
Read - 09Governance 5 min Published April 2026
Guardian agent
The Gartner-coined category for AI systems that supervise other AI systems. Real, narrow, still forming in April 2026.
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