The branch of AI focused on understanding and generating human language, which is the underlying technology behind chatbots, AI agents, and language models.
Definition of “Natural Language Processing”
Natural language processing is what allows a computer to take a sentence written by a person, such as a customer's question or a search query, and extract meaning from it, rather than requiring the input to match an exact pre-written phrase.
It is the foundation underneath most of the AI tools businesses interact with directly: chat assistants, AI agents, voice assistants, and the language models used to draft content or summarize information.
“Natural Language Processing” In Practice
When a customer types 'do you guys come out on weekends', NLP allows a chat assistant to understand this as a question about weekend availability, even though it does not match the exact wording 'what are your business hours' that might appear in a script.