Chapter 12: Intelligent Systems in Business Introduction to Information Technology 2nd Edition Turban, Rainer & Potter © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Chapter 12: Intelligent Systems in Business Prepared by: Roberta M. Roth, Ph.D. University of Northern Iowa

Chapter Preview In this chapter, we will study: What is meant by artificial intelligence How expert systems are developed and how they perform How AI has been applied to other arenas, such as natural language processing and neural computing The concept and usefulness of intelligent agents Ethical and legal issues posed by AI

‘Intelligent’ Systems? Conventional computer systems do not possess ‘intelligence.’ They simply follow step-by-step instructions to complete a task If a computer system had ‘intelligence,’ it would… Deal successfully with complex situations Learn from experience Adapt to new situations quickly Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

Why do we want ‘Intelligent’ Systems? To capture and represent human knowledge permanently To perform tasks requiring intelligence repetitively, consistently, and capably To document the performance of a task To conveniently disseminate knowledge and expertise to others Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

Artificial Intelligence Branch of computer science that Studies human intelligent behavior Attempts to replicate that human intelligent behavior in a computer system Employs symbolic processing of knowledge and heuristics Does not really enable computers to ‘think’ Does enable creation of systems with some human-like behaviors Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

Applications of Artificial Intelligence Expert Systems Natural language technology Speech understanding Robotics Computer vision Intelligent computer-assisted instruction Machine learning Handwriting recognition Intelligent agents Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

What is an Expert System? Computer system that solves a problem as successfully as a human expert Incorporates human expertise Acquires facts about the problem Applies its stored knowledge and expertise to the problem facts to derive a solution Makes recommendations Can explain its reasoning and logic Successful commercial application of AI Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

Key Expert System Terms Knowledge acquisition – the process of obtaining knowledge and expertise from human experts Knowledge representation – the method used to represent human knowledge and expertise in the computer system Knowledge inferencing – the process of applying stored expertise to the facts about the problem to draw conclusions Knowledge transfer and use – the communication of the problem solution and its justification to the system user Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

More Expert System Terms Knowledge base – stored facts and methods of how to solve a problem Heuristic – rule of thumb that can be applied in a problem solution Inference engine – processing logic stored in the system that correctly applies the stored knowledge to the problem to develop a solution Domain expert – one or more humans who have achieved a high level of expertise in solving a problem Knowledge engineer – person who develops expert systems Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

How is an Expert System Created? Knowledge engineer works with domain expert to extract domain knowledge Knowledge engineer encodes domain knowledge in knowledge base using appropriate knowledge representation Knowledge engineer tests system on sample problems and refines system knowledge with help from domain engineer Refinement continues until system is solving problems with human expert capability Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

How Does an Expert System Perform? System asks user a series of questions to gather facts about the problem System uses inference engine to form conclusions from the facts, including a measure of certainty about the conclusions System displays its recommendation or solution to the problem If asked, the system can display its reasoning and logic as to how it arrived at the conclusion Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

Expert System Structure

More on Expert Systems Strengths Limitations Rapid, consistent problem solutions Ability to justify and explain reasoning Easy to replicate and distribute to non-expert users Limitations Can only solve problems in a narrow domain Can only be applied to certain problem types Cannot learn from its experience Hard to acquire knowledge from human expert

Other Intelligent Systems Natural Language Processing The ability to communicate with a computer in your natural language Voice (speech) recognition and speech understanding – system recognizes spoken words and understands their meaning Voice synthesis – computer produces natural language voice output that sounds ‘human’ Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

Other Intelligent Systems Neural Computing A computer model that uses architecture that mimics certain brain functions Performs pattern recognition well Can analyse large data sets and discover patterns where rules were previously unknown Can ‘learn’ by analysing new cases and updating itself Many potential business applications Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

Other Intelligent Systems Case-Based Reasoning Uses solutions from similar problems and adapts them to new problems Useful in solving very complex cases Fuzzy Logic Enables systems to effectively deal with uncertainty Often use in combination with other technologies to improve productivity Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

Intelligent Agents Software agent that autonomously performs tasks on behalf of a user with certain goals or objectives Can tirelessly perform repetitive tasks over a network Includes knowledge base and ability to learn Can be static (on the client only) or mobile (move throughout a network) Often used to facilitate search and retrieval on the Internet and to assist in e-commerce tasks Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

Virtual Reality Simulation of a physical environment in a highly realistic way Useful for communication and learning Many potential business applications, especially marketing Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

Intelligent Systems Concerns Potential to use the power of intelligent systems in unethical ways Who will be accountable for decisions made by intelligent systems? Who ‘owns’ knowledge and expertise? Can an expert be ‘forced’ to reveal his/her expertise? Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

Chapter Summary Artificial intelligence has produced a variety of approaches to simulating some aspect of human behavior Expert systems have been most successful in business applications Natural language processing capability is improving Intelligent agents are very powerful tools in many of today’s systems AI brings many ethical and legal concerns Global systems – systems connecting two or more companies in two or more countries Electronic data interchange (EDI) – electronic movement of business documents between business partners Electronic funds transfer (EFT) – transfer of money using telecommunications Extranets – extended Intranets that link business partners Shared databases – databases that business partners both have access to Integrated messaging – delivery of email and fax messages through a single communication system.

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