Decision Support and Artificial Intelligence: Understanding the Tools for Effective Decision Making

1. 4 Decision Supportand Artificial Intelligence

2. Knowledge Workers Checklist must understand: • categories of decisions & the process of decision making • types of decision support systems & their roles • types of artificial intelligence systems & uses • how to the choose the appropriate IT system

3. find what to fix find fixes pick a fix apply the fix Decisions • Types • structured vs. unstructured • recurring vs. ad hoc • Decision making steps • intelligence • design • choice • implementation

4. Decision Support Systems (DSS) • a computerized system to help you make decisions • components • data management • model management • user interface management

5. Group Decision Support System (GDSS) • used in team problem solving • components • special groupware • DSS capabilities • telecommunications

6. GDSS Decision Process • brainstorming • issue categorization and analysis • ranking and voting

7. Meeting Types • synchronous • same room • same city • same planet • asynchronous • same city • same planet

8. Geographic Information Systems • a DSS for spatial (map) information • applications such as: • targeting customers by area • planning routes of a truck fleet • planning marketing campaigns

9. Artificial Intelligence - AI • machines imitating human thinking and behavior • types • expert systems • neural networks • genetic algorithms • intelligent agents

10. Expert System applies reasoning to reach a conclusion

11. Good for • auditing • diagnosing engine problems • production problems • lithographic printing

12. Components of Expert Systems • information • people • IT components

13. Information Types • domain expertise • how to solve the problem • why? Information • answers users questions • problem facts • particulars about current problem

14. People • domain expert • person who knows how to solve problem • knowledge engineer • IT specialist • knowledge worker or user

15. IT Components • knowledge base • knowledge acquisition component • inference engine • user interface • explanation module

16. Neural Network learns to differentiate patterns on its own

17. Good for • finding fraud in credit card use • reading handwriting • finding anomalies in human tissue

18. Training a Neural Network • show the neural network lots of examples • tell it which category each belongs to • with practice, the neural network can distinguish categories by itself

19. Genetic Algorithm uses the evolutionary, survival-of-the fittest process to find the best solutions

20. Good for • finding cheapest route for laying cable • finding best stock portfolio combinations

21. Genetic Algorithm Concepts • selection • give preference to better outcomes • crossover • combine portions of good outcomes • mutation • randomly try combinations

22. Intelligent Agent performs repetitive tasks on a computer or network

23. Types • find-and-retrieve agents • buyer agent or shopping bot • user agents • check e-mail • monitoring and surveillance agents • monitor network for likely problems • data-mining agents • data warehouses

24. Summary • decisions come in several types • decision making consists of intelligence, design, choice and implementation • Decision Support Systems (DSS) are computerized systems that can help people make decisions • a Group DSS can be used to make meetings more efficient and effective • Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a type of DSS that handles spatial information • Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used to make machines think and or behave like humans • AI types - expert systems, neural networks, genetic algorithms, intelligent agents