Turban, Aronson, and Liang Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, Seventh Edition

Chapter 13 Intelligent Systems Over the Internet

2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang

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Learning Objectives Understand intelligent systems operating across the Internet. Examine the concept of intelligent agents. Learn intelligent agent applications. Explore the concept of Web-based semantic knowledge. Understand recommendation systems. Design recommendation systems.

2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang

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Spartan Uses Intelligent Systems to Find the Right Person and Reduce Turnover Vignette
Supermarket chains experience over 100% turnover
Employee replacement expensive Front-end positions critical in terms of customer relationships

Spartan employed automated hiring system

Analyze applicant profile Selects candidates from huge applicant pool Reduced turnover rate to 59% Increased operational efficiency Integrated with other systems
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2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang

Intelligent Systems
Programs with tasks automated according to rules and inference mechanisms Web used as delivery platform
May include semantic information
Semantic Web

Generally perform specific tasks

Information agents Monitoring agents Recommendation agents
2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang 13-4

Intelligent Agents
Program that helps user perform routine tasks
Software agents, wizards, demons, bots

Degree of independence or autonomy Three functions

Perception of dynamic conditions Actions that affect environment Reasoning
2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang 13-5

Intelligence Levels
Wooldridge
Reactivity to changes in environment Ability to choose response Capability of interaction with other agents

Lee
Level 0
Retrieve documents from URLs specified by user

Level 1
User-initiated search for relevant pages

Level 2
Maintain user profiles Notify users when relevant materials located

Level 3
Learning and deductive reasoning component to assist user in expressing queries
2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang 13-6

Components
Owner
User name, parent process name, or master agent name

Author
Development owner, service, or master agent name

Account
Anchor to owners account

Goals and metrics

Determines tasks point of completion and value of results

Subject Description
Description of goals attributes

Creation and Duration

Request and response date

Background information Intelligent subsystem

Can provide several of the above characteristics
2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang 13-7

Agents
Can act on own or be empowered Can make some decisions Can decide when to initiate actions Unscripted actions Designed to interact with other agents, programs, or humans Automates repetitive, narrowly defined tasks Continuously running process Must be believable Should be transparent Should work on a variety of machines May be capable of learning
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2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang

Successful Intelligent Agents

Decision support systems Employee empowerment for customer service Automation of routine tasks Search and retrieval of data Expert models Mundane personal activity
2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang 13-9

Classifications
Franklin and Graessers autonomous agents

Organization agents
Task execution for processes or applications

Personal agents
Perform tasks for users

Private or public agents

Used by single user or many

Software or intelligent agents

Ability to learn
2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang 13-10

Characteristics
Agency
Degree of measurable autonomy Ability to run asynchronously

Intelligence
Degree of reasoning and learned behavior

Mobility
Degree to which agents move through networks and transmit and receive data

Mobile agents
Nonmobile are two dimensional Mobile are three dimensional
2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang 13-11

Web Based Software Agents

E-mail/Mailbot agents Softbots:
Agents offering assistance with Web browsing Assistance with frequently asked questions Search engines Metasearch engines Monitor Diagnose problems Security Resource management
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Network agents

2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang

E-commerce Agents
Identify needs Search for product Find best bargain Negotiate price Arrangement of payment Arrange delivery After sales service Advertisement Payment support Fraud detection
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2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang

Other Agents
Computer interfaces Agents to facilitate learning
Speech agents Intelligent tutoring

Support for activities along supply chain Administrative office management

Workflow, computer-telephone integration

Web mining for information Monitoring for alerts Collaboration among agents Mobile commerce using WAP-based services
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2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang

DSS Agents
Agent types
Data monitoring, data gathering, modeling, domain management, learning preferences Holsapple and Whinston
Map types against
Characteristics Homeostatic goals, persistence, reactivity Reference points Client, task,domain

Hess
Map types against
Components data., modeling, user interface
2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang 13-15

Multi-agent Systems
Multiple software agents used to perform tasks
Multiple designers Agents work toward different goals Can cooperate or compete

Distributed artificial intelligence

Single designer Decomposes tasks into subtasks Distributed problem solving Single goal
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2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang

Semantic Web
Content presentation Organization standard Enables access to Web-based knowledge Allows Web-based collaboration and cooperation Technologies
XML
Scripting language employing user defined tags

Web services
XML-based technologies comprised of four layers
Transport, XML messaging, service description, publication and integration
2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang 13-17

 2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang

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Components of Semantic Web

Resource Description Framework data model
Relate Uniform Resource Identifiers to each other
Point to Web resources

Language with defined semantics Standardized terminologies for knowledge domain

Service logic establishes rules governing use

Proof Trust
2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang 13-19

Advantages and Limitations

Advantages:
Easy to understand Systems and modules easily integrated Saves development time and expense
Allows for incremental and rapid development

Limitations:
Oversimplified graphical representation Needs additional tools Incorrect definitions Information may be incorrect or inconsistent Security

Updates automatically Resources reuse

2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang

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Recommendation Systems
Personalized
Collect and analyze each users information and needs
Profile generation and maintenance
Profiling method determination Initial profile generation Data processing for pattern recognition Feedback collection Analyze feedback and adapt

Profile exploitation and recommendation

Identify useful information Compare user profile to new items Locate similar users, create neighborhood, make prediction

2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang

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Recommendation Systems
Collaborative filtering
Market segmentation used to predict preferences Compares individual to population in order to locate similar users
Similarity index metrics

Infer interests Predicts preferences based on weighted sums

Content-based filtering
Recommendations-based on similarities between products Attribute based Works with small base of data Neglects aesthetic aspects of products
2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang 13-22

Management Issues
Expense Security Systems integration and flexibility Hardware and software requirements Agent accuracy Agent learning Invasion of privacy Competitive intelligence and industrial intelligence Other ethical issues Heightened expectations Systems acceptance
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2005 Prentice Hall, Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems, 7th Edition, Turban, Aronson, and Liang