Glossary

What is Multimodal?

Multimodal means an AI can handle more than one kind of input: not just text, but also images, sound or video.

A pure text model understands only text. A multimodal model can also look at a photo, read a chart or listen to sound. You could upload a photo of a form and ask what it says. The newest tools are often multimodal.

What this means for you

It makes AI more useful in practice: you do not have to type everything out, but can also have it look at an image or a recording.

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Last reviewed: 19 June 2026.