We talk a lot about culture, in part because culture always tells you where technology stands. Culture does this long before the analysts do, you just have to listen to the language people use. The term for this new language is a retronym: something added after the fact to differentiate the original from the new. Retronyms appear when culture needs new mental folders and for marketers, those shifts are indicators of where the audience is going.

The clearest example is the guitar. For most of its life, a guitar was simply a guitar. No descriptors needed. Then the electric guitar entered the scene. Suddenly, culture needed to label the original version retroactively. “Acoustic guitar” wasn’t innovation, it was a retronym. A linguistic shortcut to help people navigate a new world.

The same thing happened in video rental culture. In the 80s and early 90s, you didn’t say “VHS tape.” You just said “video.”
Once DVDs arrived, the old format needed a retronym. For a short period, stores used both terms.

Then, as DVDs became the dominant medium, both VHS and DVD faded into the background. People didn’t say “rent a VHS” or “rent a DVD,” they simply said “rent a movie.”

The retronym served its purpose and dissolved as normalization took over.

Retronyms follow a predictable cultural lifecycle:

1. Default: The original stands alone. No descriptor needed.

2. Differentiation: A new version appears, and the original retroactively requires a label.

3. Normalization: The new version becomes dominant.

4. Abstraction: Language compresses again because the distinction no longer matters.

That’s exactly what we’re watching with AI, right now.

Where Did Generative Go?

A year ago, “generative AI” was the must-have descriptor. It separated the new wave of creative, model-driven systems from the older rule-based AI powering fraud detection, recommendation engines, and automation tools. “Generative” told culture, this is the new thing.

But ubiquity collapses language. As generative systems became the default mental model, people dropped the modifier. Today, when someone says “AI,” they almost always mean the generative kind. That shift is exactly what creates a retronym: the original term (“AI” meaning predictive systems) now needs a descriptor when you want to talk about it. “Traditional AI” or “rule-based AI” becomes the retroactive label, while “AI” moves forward as the dominant meaning.

So yes, this is the retronym moment. And it signals something important: we’re approaching the next linguistic fork.

As AGI enters public vocabulary, we’ll see another retronym cycle. At first, people will carefully distinguish between AI and AGI, traditional models vs. systems with broader reasoning.
But eventually “AI” will retroactively become a retronym. AGI will stand alone. The modifier “general” will fall away.
The language will compress again as culture absorbs the next baseline.

Why does this matter for marketers?

Because language reveals where the market’s attention is.
When retronyms emerge, consumers are learning. When they fade, consumers are adopting.
If you’re still using outdated descriptors, you signal that you’re behind the culture.
If you adjust your vocabulary too early, you risk confusing the audience.
Mastering the timing of retronyms is mastering the timing of cultural literacy.

Right now, the retronym cycle around AI is in motion. “Generative AI” is aging into a retronym.
“AI” is the default. AGI is approaching. And the language will tell us exactly when each stage turns.

Pay attention to retronyms. They’re some of the most reliable early indicators of cultural change.