AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, which broken down explains the intended use: The Asynchronous (the “A” in AJAX) nature of AJAX enables little pieces of a webpage to be altered and refreshed using JavaScript (the “JA” in AJAX) without the entire webpage having to be refreshed; the XML (which is the ”X” in AJAX) means that externalized content can be swapped in and out of the particular content area easily (either from its own server or from a 3rd party server integration.)