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Glossary
Glossary: Company Brain, context and AI
The terms leadership teams meet around the Company Brain, context management and AI agents. Every definition in two sentences, plus a practical example, common mistakes and the matching articles.
The three core terms
Company BrainAlso: Company memoryA Company Brain is a company's shared memory: it connects knowledge, decisions and meeting notes from the tools you already use in one place.Definition and example Enterprise Context ManagementAlso: ECM, context management, shared context, context layerEnterprise Context Management (ECM) keeps a company's context current, reviewed and usable for people and AI agents.Definition and example Meeting CompanionAlso: AI meeting assistant, AI meeting notes, AI notetakerA Meeting Companion is an AI assistant that joins online meetings, records them and transcribes them live with speaker names.Definition and example
All terms
Grouped by topic. Every term has its own page with a definition, an example and a next step.
Company Brain and context
Context EngineeringContext engineering is the work of giving an AI model exactly the right context for a task: the goal, the rules that apply and the knowledge it needs.Definition and example Knowledge management with AIAlso: AI knowledge managementKnowledge management with AI uses AI to find, summarise and update company knowledge instead of just filing it.Definition and example Organisational memoryAlso: Institutional memory, tribal knowledge, decision logOrganisational memory is what a company knows and keeps about itself: decisions, experience and reasons, independent of individual people.Definition and example PlaybookAlso: Runbook, standard operating procedureA playbook describes a recurring task so that people and AI agents run it the same way: with its knowledge, steps and approvals.Definition and example Second BrainAlso: Personal knowledge management, PKMA Second Brain is a personal system in which one person captures notes, ideas and knowledge to take the load off their own memory.Definition and example Single Source of TruthAlso: SSOT, source of recordA single source of truth is the one source that counts as authoritative for a given piece of information, such as prices, goals or a decision.Definition and example Strategy execution gapAlso: Execution gap, strategic alignmentThe strategy execution gap is the distance between what a leadership team decides and what actually happens in day-to-day work.Definition and example
AI agents and technology
AI agentAlso: Agent, agentic AIAn AI agent is a program that uses a language model to pursue a goal, plan its own steps and use tools to get there.Definition and example AI memoryAlso: Agent memory, session memory, AI memory layerAI memory is the part of an AI system that keeps knowledge beyond a single conversation.Definition and example Context windowAlso: Context lengthThe context window is the amount of text an AI model can read at once when it answers.Definition and example HallucinationAlso: ConfabulationA hallucination is a statement by an AI that sounds convincing but is false or unsupported.Definition and example Human in the LoopAlso: HITL, human approvalHuman in the loop means a person reviews and approves an AI process at defined points before it continues.Definition and example Knowledge GraphAlso: Enterprise knowledge graphA knowledge graph stores knowledge as a network: things such as customers, projects and decisions are nodes, and their relationships are edges.Definition and example MCPAlso: Model Context ProtocolMCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard through which AI applications access data and tools.Definition and example RAGAlso: Retrieval-augmented generation, semantic searchRAG (retrieval-augmented generation) is a method where an AI model looks up relevant passages in your documents before it answers.Definition and example
AI governance and data protection
AI governanceAI governance is the set of rules a company uses to decide who may use AI for what, with which data and under whose responsibility.Definition and example AI ReadinessAlso: AI maturityAI Readiness describes how well a company is prepared to use AI effectively and responsibly.Definition and example Data residencyAlso: Regional processingData residency defines in which region data is stored and processed, for example only in Switzerland or the EU.Definition and example LLM data controlsAlso: No training, zero data retention, DPA, allowlist, log hygieneLLM data controls are the technical and contractual measures that determine what happens to your data in a language model.Definition and example Shadow AIAlso: Unsanctioned AI useShadow AI is the use of AI tools the company has neither approved nor knows about, such as personal chatbot accounts used for work data.Definition and example
Quality and requirements
Acceptance criteriaAlso: ACAcceptance criteria are testable conditions a piece of work must meet to count as done.Definition and example Definition of DoneAlso: DoDThe Definition of Done is a shared checklist every piece of a team's work must meet before it counts as finished.Definition and example RequirementAlso: PRD (product requirements document)A requirement describes what a product or system must do and why, from the point of view of those who use it.Definition and example
The memory aid: six controls, six phrases.
Keep the six building blocks in mind and you will get through any security review, and notice straight away when a provider only answers one of them.
No training
don't learn
Zero data retention
don't store
DPA
govern it legally
Regional processing
control the location
Technical allowlist
limit it technically
Log hygiene
no back door in your own system
No training and ZDR concern the provider. Log hygiene concerns you. That is exactly why it is forgotten most often.
Terms from Jira and Linear
Terms such as epic, story, sprint or backlog are best explained by the vendors themselves:
From the term to the whole picture.
Teklens is the Company Brain for technology companies: it connects knowledge, meeting notes and decisions from your tools and shows what no longer applies.
With a founder. No obligation.