AI Vocabulary · 04 Building with AI
What is Webhook?
An automatic message one app sends to another the moment something happens, so the second app can react.
A webhook is a notification sent from one system to a web address you choose, as soon as an event happens: a payment succeeds, a form is submitted, a calendar booking is made. Instead of your tool asking "anything new?" every few minutes, the other tool tells it right away.
Webhooks are the trigger behind most workflow automations. A new booking arrives by webhook, an AI step prepares a briefing, and the result lands in your inbox. Where an API is you calling a service, a webhook is the service calling you.
Why it matters for you
If you want AI to react to events in your business in real time, webhooks are usually how it happens. Knowing the term helps you ask the right question: "Can this tool send a webhook when X happens?"
Own it
Webhooks carry data to wherever the address points. Check that the receiving address is yours or a tool you trust, keep the address secret, and know which data each webhook sends, to avoid data leakage.
Where it comes from
Jeff Lindsay coined the term "webhook" in 2007, building on the programming idea of a "hook": a place where you can attach your own code to an event (Wikipedia). His vision was a web where services notify each other the moment something happens, instead of constantly asking. Today almost every online tool offers webhooks.
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