Vectorization refers to performing operations on entire NumPy arrays or sequences of data without using explicit loops. This allows computations to be performed more efficiently by leveraging optimized low-level code. Traditional Python code may use loops to perform operations element-wise, whereas NumPy allows the same operations to be performed vectorized on entire arrays. Broadcasting rules allow operations between arrays of different shapes by automatically expanding dimensions. Vectorization is a key technique for speeding up numerical Python code using NumPy.