AI_SLANG_ENTRY
Tool Calling Meaning
The moment an AI stops merely chatting and starts asking software to do things: search, fetch, write, calculate, schedule, or touch an API.
What does Tool Calling mean?
The moment an AI stops merely chatting and starts asking software to do things: search, fetch, write, calculate, schedule, or touch an API.
Tool calling lets a model choose a structured action for software to run. The model proposes the call; the application decides what actually executes.
Origin and usage
Became everyday builder vocabulary as LLM APIs added structured ways for models to call developer-defined functions and external tools.
Source type: product-term. Last checked: 2026-07-03.
Current AI API and developer-platform term; official model-provider documentation uses it for structured interactions between models and external tools or functions.
Examples
- The demo looked smart because tool calling did the actual database lookup.
- Tool calling without permissions is how a chatbot graduates from annoying to expensive.