The Emergency Spanish Foundation, known as FundéuRAE and supported by the EFE Agency and the Spanish Royal Academy, announced in 2022 that the term artificial intelligence had earned the title of Word of the Year. This choice reflects how a single phrase has grown from a technical descriptor into a pervasive element of everyday conversation and public discourse across many sectors.
On Thursday, the organization shared the rationale behind selecting a term that has long lived in scholarly and technical lexicons but has only recently saturated mainstream media and common parlance. The decision highlights how the structure has evolved from a purely academic entry into a concept that now shapes a wide range of discussions about technology and society, including how people interact with software and automated systems on a daily basis.
FundéuRAE emphasizes that the reasons supporting the choice go beyond mere popularity. The term has shown significant media presence over the past year as advances in artificial intelligence have sparked broad conversations about ethics, job displacement, and the changing nature of work. The press release notes that the implications and applications of artificial intelligence extend across multiple professional fields, including data analysis, cybersecurity, finance, and linguistics. In each case, AI has moved from a distant technical topic to a practical tool that impacts decision-making, risk assessment, and daily operations for countless individuals and organizations.
From a linguistic standpoint, FundéuRAE treats the expression artificial intelligence as a singular unit that raises important language questions. The organization argues that the term is sufficiently clear to be the word of the year because it provokes contemplation and debate about how it should be used in Spanish. One key point is the goal of teaching machines to use Spanish accurately while preserving the linguistic cohesion shared by more than 500 million Spanish speakers. In practical terms, this means striving for natural-sounding machine-generated language that respects regional variations and common usage patterns without sacrificing clarity or correctness.
The press release also addresses orthographic conventions. It notes that the expression artificial intelligence is commonly written in lowercase, and in many contexts the abbreviation IA is used in Spanish. However, the English acronym AI, corresponding to artificial intelligence, is also familiar and accepted in technical fields. This reflects a broader trend of bilingual and multinational usage in which both forms coexist depending on audience, medium, and technical seriousness. The choice underscores the balance between maintaining linguistic unity and accommodating international terminology that has become part of everyday life.
Historical context adds depth to the selection. The 2022 Word of the Year was chosen from a pool of twelve candidates, many of which centered on technology or the broader consequences of global events, such as the war in Ukraine. The list also included terms like apocalypse, cryptocurrency, diversity, environmental destruction, gas pipeline, gigafactory, influenza, inflation, artificial intelligence, sex doping, collision, and Ukrainian. The range illustrates how contemporary realities and emerging technologies shape the vocabulary people use to describe the world around them. Previous winners reflect a spectrum of social concerns and cultural moments, ranging from escrache in 2013 to vaccine in 2021, showing the evolving language of social issues and everyday life.
In essence, the selection of artificial intelligence as Word of the Year for 2022 captures a moment when a technical concept became central to public conversation. It signals a turning point where people ask critical questions about optimization, automation, and the ethical boundaries of machine intelligence. According to FundéuRAE, the decision recognizes not only the rapid pace of development in this field but also the responsibilities that accompany widespread implementation. The organization frames the term as a gateway for readers and listeners to explore how technology meets human needs, influences professional environments, and interacts with cultural and linguistic norms.
As discussions continue across media, academia, and industry, artificial intelligence stands as a touchstone for examining how algorithms learn, reason, and assist in problem solving. The term remains a focal point for debates about privacy, accountability, and the future of work, while also serving as a reminder of the power and limits of automated systems. The choice by FundéuRAE thus invites ongoing reflection on language, technology, and the ways in which new tools reshape everyday life for speakers around the world, including Canada and the United States where bilingual and multilingual contexts increasingly intersect with English usage. The word reflects a global phenomenon, bridging languages and cultures as it informs and challenges how people communicate about intelligent machines. For readers, the term provides a concise lens through which to view the evolving relationship between humans and technology that sits at the heart of modern society and its vocabulary.