# Machine learning

> The main way modern AI is built: the system learns patterns from many examples rather than being handed explicit rules.

**Category:** Core concept, Under the hood

**Machine learning is the engine under most of today's AI.** You show the system thousands of examples, say, emails marked "spam" or "not spam", and it **works out the patterns for itself**, then applies them to things it has never seen.

It is **a part of artificial intelligence, not a separate thing**. Product recommendations, fraud alerts, and photo tagging are all everyday machine learning at work.

## At work

When your expense tool flags one odd claim for review, that is machine learning at work. Nobody wrote a rule for that exact case; the system learned what a normal claim looks like and spotted the one that did not fit.

## Often confused with

AI in general. Machine learning is one way to build AI, the most common one today, not another word for the whole field.

## Related terms

- Artificial intelligence
- Generative AI

## See it in a lesson

[What is AI?](/en/learn/foundations/what-is-ai)

## Further reading

- [Machine learning (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_learning): A solid reference on how learning from data works.
- [What is machine learning? (IBM)](https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/machine-learning): A clear, non-technical explainer.
- [Machine Learning Crash Course (Google)](https://developers.google.com/machine-learning/crash-course): A free, hands-on course if you want to go deeper.

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Last updated: 24/07/2026  
Source: Rollo Academy glossary