AI Support & Agents

Generative AI

Definition

Generative AI is a class of AI that creates new content — text, images, code, or audio — by learning patterns from training data, rather than only classifying or predicting from existing inputs.

Also known as: gen AIgenerative models

How it works

Generative models learn the underlying distribution of their training data and then sample from it to produce novel outputs. For text, that means large language models; for images, diffusion models and similar architectures.

In customer support, generative AI is what lets a system write an original, context-aware reply to a customer instead of picking from a fixed menu of canned responses.

Why it matters for support

Generative AI is the leap from rigid, rule-based bots to systems that understand intent and respond naturally. Combined with grounding, it produces answers that read like a knowledgeable human wrote them — while staying accurate to your content.

Frequently asked

Is generative AI the same as a large language model?

An LLM is one kind of generative AI — the kind that generates text. Generative AI is the broader category that also covers image, audio, and code generation.

How is generative AI used in customer support?

It drafts replies, summarizes tickets and conversations, suggests responses to agents, and powers AI agents that resolve requests conversationally.

Related terms

Large Language Model (LLM)

A large language model (LLM) is a neural network trained on vast amounts of text to predict and generate language, enabling it to understand questions, summarize, classify, and write human-like responses..

Conversational AI

Conversational AI is technology that lets people interact with software through natural back-and-forth dialogue — understanding intent, maintaining context across turns, and responding in natural language via chat or voice..

AI Agent

An AI agent is a software system that uses a language model to understand a request, decide what to do, and take actions — calling tools, retrieving data, and completing tasks — rather than just returning a single scripted answer..

AI Summarization

AI summarization is the use of a language model to condense long text — a ticket thread, chat transcript, or knowledge article — into a shorter, accurate summary that captures the key points and context..

Machine Learning

Machine learning is a branch of AI in which systems learn patterns from data to make predictions or decisions, rather than following rules a programmer wrote by hand..

Put these ideas to work

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