When Gen AI is thinking

When gen AI is “thinking,” it’s deciding which part of its knowledge to search more carefully. Like a librarian checking a specific shelf instead of running around grabbing random books.

Two years ago we called this prompt engineering. We told the chatbot where to look. Now it figures that out itself. That’s the main difference.

The thinking lets it course-correct too. It can start at one shelf, realize that’s wrong, and move to another. With prompt engineering we had to guess right the first time.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​