A taxonomy of seventeen elements, plus two CaroKahn extensions
The AI Periodic Table
Mapping prompts, embeddings, agents and frameworks into families and periods
A thousand AI terms fly around at any given moment – agents, RAG, embeddings, guardrails, multi-modal, fine tuning. The map below organises seventeen of them, plus two CaroKahn extensions where the 2025–26 stack outgrew the original, into five families (the columns) and four periods of maturity (the rows), so any AI architecture can be decoded as a combination of elements. Click an element for its definition, a family to see what shares its column, a period to see what shares its row, or a reaction to see how elements combine in the wild.
Edition
Easy explanations are being written for the SAP edition.
Practice domainsAAG Application Access GovernanceCCM Continuous Controls MonitoringDPS Data Protection & SecurityAIRC AI Risk & Controls
Reactions – common combinations
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Element grid
Why a periodic table?
Learn why this metaphor works
Selected element, family or reaction detail
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Help · Using the AI Periodic Table
What this is
The AI Periodic Table is a reference map of the modern AI stack. It organises the building blocks of AI systems into five families and four periods of maturity, so any AI architecture can be read as a combination of parts. It is a reference, not a scoring tool: it shows you what the pieces are and what to ask of them, not a grade for your organisation. The map covers the generative AI stack. Narrow AI – the task-specific models behind classical predictive analytics – predates it and still does much of the quiet work in enterprise estates; the Dictionary's Foundational entries cover it and where it meets this map.
The two editions
There are two editions in this one file. AI Literacy (Core) is the general map, for any team getting to grips with AI. SAP Business AI maps the same frame onto SAP's stack, from the Generative AI Hub to Joule. Switch between them with the edition control at the top of the page.
How to read the table
The columns are the five families, grouping blocks by what they do: reactive, retrieval, orchestration, validation and models. The rows are the four periods, read top to bottom from established to emerging. Each cell is one building block. Click a cell to open its full description, or click a family heading or a period row to see everything that shares that column or row.
Easy Explanations
Turn on Easy Explanations for a plain-language version of every concept, with the chemistry metaphor itself explained. It is built for readers new to AI, and it covers both editions. Use the toggle near the top of the page.
The Governance lens
Turn on the Governance lens and every building block gains a controls view: its control objective, the key risks, the framework clauses that apply, including the EU AI Act, ISO 42001 and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, and which discipline owns it. The lens shows you what to govern. It stops there by design. Working out where your organisation stands against it, and closing the gaps, is advisory work, and there is a link to start that conversation at the foot of the page.
Reactions
Reactions show how the building blocks combine into real systems, from a production retrieval pipeline to an autonomous agent. Click a reaction to see the blocks it uses and how they fit. From any element you can also see which reactions it appears in.
Searching
Use the search box to find a block or a term across the whole table. Matches are summarised below the box; click any result to jump to it.
Navigating and exporting
Move around the grid with the arrow keys and open a cell with Enter. Every element can be exported on its own as Markdown, to copy or download, from the control in its detail panel. The tool is built to WCAG 2.1 AA, with full keyboard access and light and dark themes.
Offline and privacy
The tool runs entirely in your browser. There is no account, no sign-in and no connection required once it has loaded. Nothing you do here leaves your device. It is yours to keep and to use offline.
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AI Dictionary
A companion glossary of 174 AI terms, a superset of the table. Search by term or alias, filter by family and edition, and jump to any term that also appears on the grid. Entirely offline.
CaroKahn AI Dictionary v1.3 · as at 20 July 2026 · carokahn.com
CaroKahn