An AI application that operates in the background. Ambient AI is "passive AI," for example, turning on household lights based on time of day, turning on speakers when a room is entered or changing thermostat settings after learning the homeowner's preferences.
Ambient AI and Agentic AI
Although ambient AI is more passive than agentic AI, they both operate in the background without user prompting, and they are merging concepts. The primary difference is that ambient AI makes changes in the background whereas AI agents are more proactive. For example, an ambient AI might suggest a videoconference whereas an AI agent would actually book it. See
AI agent.