transaction
What It Means
A transaction is a coordinated business process where multiple systems or people work together to complete a specific task that either fully succeeds or completely fails - there's no in-between. Think of it as a formal handshake between systems where everyone has to agree on the outcome before anything becomes final.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
AI systems increasingly participate in complex transactions involving multiple data sources, models, and business processes that must maintain consistency across all components. If an AI-driven transaction partially fails, it can create data inconsistencies, compliance violations, or broken business processes that are expensive and time-consuming to fix.
Real-World Example
When a customer uses an AI-powered loan approval system, the transaction involves checking credit scores, validating income data, updating customer records, and notifying multiple departments - if the system approves the loan but fails to update the customer's credit utilization, the entire transaction should roll back rather than leave the business in an inconsistent state.
Common Confusion
People often think a transaction is just any business activity or data exchange, but the key distinction is the 'all-or-nothing' coordination requirement - regular business processes can partially complete, while transactions must ensure all participants reach the same consistent outcome.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare, transactions ensure critical processes like patient admissions, medication dispensing, or insurance claim...
Finance: In finance, a transaction represents any exchange of financial value between parties that must maintain ACID properties ...
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Includes:
- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"Enactment of a process represented by a set of coordinated activities carried out by multiple systems and/or participants in accordance with defined relationships. This coordination leads to an intentional, consistent, and verifiable result across all participants."Source: IEEE_Guide_IPA
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