Ajax allows for asynchronous data exchange in the background without reloading the webpage. It uses JavaScript and XMLHttpRequest objects to make requests to the server and update portions of the webpage. The process involves creating an XMLHttpRequest object, opening a request with a method like GET and a URL, sending the request, handling the response, and updating the HTML page without reloading. Key properties and methods of the XMLHttpRequest object allow processing the asynchronous request and response. Ajax improves the user experience by updating parts of pages in the background without interfering with other actions on the page.