Page 233 - DMGT505_MANAGEMENT_INFORMATION_SYSTEM

Management Information Systems

Notes 12.1.2 Basic Properties of an Expert System

The basic properties of expert system are:
 It tries to simulate human reasoning capability about a specific domain rather than the
domain itself. This feature separates expert systems from some other familiar programs
that use mathematical modeling or computer animation. In an expert system the focus is
to emulate an expert’s knowledge and problem solving capabilities and if possible, at a
faster rate than a human expert.
 It perform reasoning over the acquired knowledge, rather than merely performing some
calculations or performing data retrieval.
 It can solve problems by using heuristic or approximate models which, unlike other
algorithmic solutions are not guaranteed to succeed.

AI programs that achieve expert-level competence in solving problems in different domains are
more called knowledge based systems. A knowledge-based system is any system which performs
a job or task by applying rules of thumb to a symbolic representation of knowledge, instead of
employing mostly algorithmic or statistical methods. Often the term expert systems is reserved
for programs whose knowledge base contains the knowledge used by human experts, in contrast
to knowledge gathered from textbooks or non-experts. But more often than not, the two terms,
expert systems and knowledge-based systems are taken us synonyms. Together they represent
the most widespread type of AI application. The area of human intellectual endeavour to be
captured in an expert system is sometimes called the task domain.

Did u know? What is task domain?
Task refers to some goal-oriented, problem-solving activity. Domain refers to the area
within which the task is being performed. Some of the typical tasks are diagnosis, planning,
scheduling, configuration and design.

Example: A program capable of conversing about the weather would be a knowledge-
based system, even if that program did not have any expertise in meteorology, but an expert
system must be able to perform weather forecasting.

12.1.3 Characteristics of Expert System

1. Expert system is an application of artificial Intelligence which incorporates knowledge
and problem solving skills of a human being into an information system.

2. Expert system can replace human beings.
3. Expert systems are not designed for one level of management because their primary goal
is to provide expertise to whole organization.

4. Expert system has three components such as knowledge base, the inference engine and the
user interface.

12.1.4 Need of Expert System

There are many reasons to use an expert system. Here are some of the primary reasons:

 Helps preserve knowledge-builds up the corporate memory of the firm.

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