Foundational Concepts
Training Data
The text, documents, or other content an AI learns from during its development.
Definition
Training data is the raw material an AI learns from. For a language model, this might be hundreds of billions of words drawn from books, websites, academic papers, and code repositories. The quality, breadth, and balance of training data has a profound effect on what the model can do well and where it will make mistakes. A model trained primarily on English-language formal text will be better at professional writing than casual conversation, and may perform poorly in other languages.
Why this matters for your business
When deploying AI on business-specific tasks — such as categorising your support tickets or reviewing your supplier contracts — fine-tuning with your own data usually produces significantly better results than using a general model directly.
Related Terms
Machine Learning (ML)
A method where computers learn patterns from data rather than being explicitly programmed.
Fine-tuning
Further training a pre-trained model on specific data to specialise it for a task.
Bias
Systematic unfairness in AI outputs, often reflecting imbalances in training data.
Synthetic Data
AI-generated training data used when real data is scarce, sensitive, or expensive to label.
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Disclaimer
This definition is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It represents a general explanation of a technical concept and does not constitute professional, technical, or investment advice. Artificial intelligence is a rapidly evolving field; terminology, techniques, and capabilities change frequently. Coaley Peak Ltd makes no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness, or currency of the information provided. Nothing on this page should be relied upon as the sole basis for commercial, technical, legal, or investment decisions without independent professional advice.
Document reference: ISO_webpage_knowledge-base_glossary_v1
Last modified: 29 March 2026
Knowledge Base·Foundational Concepts·Training Data