What is generative AI? Plain English explanation

You’ve probably seen the phrase ‘generative AI’ in news articles and wondered if it’s meaningfully different from just ‘AI’ or whether someone just needed a longer word.

It is meaningfully different. Here’s what it means.

What is generative AI?

Generative AI is AI that creates new content — text, images, audio, video, code — rather than just analysing or categorising existing content.

The word ‘generative’ means it generates things. It produces output that didn’t exist before.

When you type a question into ChatGPT and it writes a response, that response is newly generated. It wasn’t retrieved from a database. It was created in response to your specific input.

That’s generative AI.

How is it different from older AI?

Earlier AI was mostly about pattern recognition and classification. Is this email spam or not? Is this image a cat or a dog? Is this transaction fraudulent?

Useful, but not visible to most people in their daily work.

Generative AI is different because it produces things you can use directly — drafts, summaries, analyses, plans. That’s why it’s transformed how people work.

What tools use generative AI?

The ones you’re already hearing about:

• →ChatGPT — generates text responses to questions and requests. Made by OpenAI.
• →Microsoft Copilot — generates email summaries, meeting notes, document drafts. Built into Microsoft 365.
• →Claude — generates text, particularly good at longer and more nuanced writing. Made by Anthropic.
• →Gemini — Google's generative AI, built into Gmail and Google Docs.
• →Perplexity — generates synthesised answers to research questions, with sources.

These are all generative AI tools. They all understand plain English instructions and produce useful output in response.

Do I need to understand this to use the tools?

No. You don’t need to understand how an engine works to drive a car.

But knowing the term is useful because it comes up constantly in business conversations, news articles, and company communications about AI strategy. When someone says ‘generative AI’ you now know exactly what they mean.

That Clicked is an AI training course for professionals over 50 that covers all of these tools in plain English — starting with the ones already on your computer.

— Anna