1

Chapter 4

Decision Support and Artificial Intelligence

Brainpower for Your Business

2

Introduction

Types of computer-aided decision support.

Figure 4.1 pg 134

3

Management Problem solving Model

Problem or opportunity Objectives Alternatives Analysis of alternatives Recommendation Implementation

4

Decisions, Decisions, DecisionsHow You Make a Decision

Four phases of decision making

Figure 4.2 pg 135

5

Decisions, Decisions, DecisionsTypes of Decisions You Face

Figure 4.3 pg 136

6

Structured How many

workers to staff line A

What is the EOQ for raw material Z

How many turbines to power Lethbridge?

Unstructured What are the

benefits of merging with XYZ

How will consumer react if we lower the price by 10%

What are the benefits of MacDonalds opening up Hotels

7

Decision Support Systems Decision support system (DSS) - highly

flexible and interactive IT system that is designed to support decision making when the problem is not structured.

8

Decision Support Systems Components of a Decision Support System

Figure 4.5 pg 138

9

Collaboration System Collaboration

system – software that is designed specifically to improve the performance of teams by supporting the sharing and flow of information.

Figure 4.6 pg 141

10

Geographic Information Systems

Geographic information system (GIS) - a decision support system designed to work with spatial information.

Spatial information is any information that can be shown in map form, such as roads, the distribution of bald eagle populations, and the layout of electrical lines.

11

Geographic Information Systems

http://www.corda.com/examples/go/

12

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) - the

science of making machines imitate ____________ thinking and behavior.

Robot - mechanical device equipped with simulated ____________ senses and the capability of taking action on its own.

13

Artificial Intelligence The AI systems that businesses use most

can be classified into four categories:1. Expert systems

2. ________ networks

3. Genetic ________4. Intelligent agents5. Robotics - industry6. Artifical Vision – sort mail 7. Natural Language processing - input

14

Expert Systems

Expert system, or knowledge-based system - ________ ________system that applies reasoning capabilities to reach a conclusion.

Internal medicine, investments, tax planning, engineers, accountants etc

15

Expert SystemsComponents of an Expert System

Expert systems are good for diagnostic (what’s wrong?) and prescriptive (what to do?) problems.

16

Expert SystemsComponents of an Expert System

Figure 4.10 pg 150

17

Expert SystemsWhat Expert Systems Can and Can’t Do

An expert system can: Reduce ________ Improve customer service ________ costs

An expert system can’t: Use common sense ________ all processes Limited ability to learn

18

Neural Networks

Neural network (often called an artificial neural network or ANN) - an artificial intelligence system that is capable of finding and ____________ patterns.

19

Neural Networks Types of Neural Networks

Self-organizing neural network - finds _______ and __________ in vast amounts of data by itself.

Back-propagation neural network - a neural network trained by someone.

20

Neural Networks Inside a Neural Network

Figure 4.11 pg 155

21

Genetic Algorithms

Genetic algorithm - an artificial intelligence system that mimics the ________, survival-of-the-fittest process to generate increasingly better solutions to a problem.

22

Genetic Algorithms Genetic algorithms use three

concepts of evolution: _________ — survival of the fittest. _________— combining portions of

good outcomes in the hope of creating an even better outcome.

________ — randomly trying combinations and evaluating the success (or failure) of the outcome.

23

Intelligent Agents

Intelligent agent - software that assists you, or acts on your behalf, in performing repetitive computer-related tasks.

Four types of intelligent agents include: Buyer agents or shopping bots User or personal agents Monitoring-and-surveillance or predictive agents Data-mining agents