Intelligent Systems in BusinessIntelligent Agents

Lecture

7.10.2008

fi i iDefinition

A software program that uses a built in or learned kno ledge base to carr o tlearned knowledge base to carry out specific, repetitive and predictable tasks for an individual user, business process or software application pp

l kExamples on tasks

Make decisions on users preferences– Delete junk emailj– Schedule appointments– Travel over interconnected networks to find the

cheapest airfare to a certain destinycheapest airfare to a certain destinyServe as personal digital assistants– Training or teaching the user (the Wizard in MS OfficeTraining or teaching the user (the Wizard in MS Office– Search engines on www do not usually qualify as

intelligent agentsi h– Lisp-coach

– PersonaLink

l lli AExamples on Intelligent Agents

Buyer agents (shopping bots)These bots help Internet surfers find products andThese bots help Internet surfers find products and services they are searching for. For example, when a person surfs for an item on eBay, at the bottom p y,of the page there is a list of similar products that other customers who did the same search looked at. This is because it is assumed the user tastes are relatively similar and they will be interested in the

d t Thi t h l i ksame products. This technology is known as collaborative filtering.

User agents (personal agents)User agents (personal agents)

Meant to carry out tasks automatically for the userthe user. Sort emails according to the user's order of

fpreference, Assemble customized news reports (e.g. newshub), or Fill out webpage forms with the user'sFill out webpage forms with the user s stored information (e.g. Form Filler bot), .

Monitoring-and-surveillance (predictive) agents

Used to observe and report on equipment, s all comp ter s stems for e ampleusually computer systems, for example

Keep track of company inventory levels,

Observe competitors' prices and relay them back to the companyback to the company,

Watch stock manipulation by insider trading and rumors, etc.

Data mining agentsData mining agents

This agent uses information technology to find trends and patterns in an abundance of information from many different sources.The user can sort through this information in order to find whateverThe user can sort through this information in order to find whatever information they are seeking. An example of this class of bot would be a data mining agent that detects market conditions and changes and relays them back to a g yuser/company so that the user/company can make decisions accordingly. For example, the agent may detect a decline in the construction i d t f b d thi l d i f tiindustry for an economy; based on this relayed information construction companies will be able to make intelligent decisions regarding the hiring/firing of employees or the purchase/lease of equipment in order to best suit their firmequipment in order to best suit their firm.

Difficulties with Intelligent Agents

No standard way on presenting information on the ebon the web– Solutions

– W3C• XML

– XBRL.org• XBRLXBRL

3CW3C

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Memberinternational consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards W3C'swork together to develop Web standards. W3C s mission is:

To lead the World Wide Web to its fullTo lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long term growth for theguidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web. Source: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/

XML

W3C is pleased to announce the renewal of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. "W3C created, developed and continues to maintain the enormously successful XML family of specifications for supporting and interchanging text, graphics, protocols, voice, music,and interchanging text, graphics, protocols, voice, music, math, programming, user interfaces, Web services and more," said Liam Quin, W3C XML Activity Lead. The XML A ti it ' i i t i t bilit dXML Activity's nine groups maintain stability and backwards compatibility, make improvements to encourage interoperability, and bring new communities to g p y, gXML. Source:http://www.w3.org/

XBRL

“The idea behind XBRL, eXtensible Business Reporting Language is simple Instead of treatingReporting Language, is simple. Instead of treating financial information as a block of text - as in a standard internet page or a printed document - itstandard internet page or a printed document - it provides an identifying tag for each individual item of data This is computer readable Foritem of data. This is computer readable. For example, company net profit has its own unique tag “tag. – Source:XBRL.org

hWhy tags

“The introduction of XBRL tags enables automated processing of business information by computer software, cutting out laborious and costly processes of manual recutting out laborious and costly processes of manual re-entry and comparison.Computers can treat XBRL data "intelligently": they can

i h i f i i d l irecognise the information in a XBRL document, select it, analyse it, store it, exchange it with other computers and present it automatically in a variety of ways for users. XBRL greatly increases the speed of handling of financial data, reduces the chance of error and permits automatic checking of information. “checking of information. – Source:XBRL.org

fi i hBenefits with XBRL

“Companies can use XBRL to save costs and streamline their processes for collecting andstreamline their processes for collecting and reporting financial information.

Consumers of financial data including investorsConsumers of financial data, including investors, analysts, financial institutions and regulators, can receive find compare and analyse data muchreceive, find, compare and analyse data much more rapidly and efficiently if it is in XBRL format “format. – Source:XBRL.org

fi i hBenefits with XBRL

XBRL can handle data in different languages and accounting standardslanguages and accounting standards.It can flexibly be adapted to meet different

i t drequirements and uses. Data can be transformed into XBRL by suitable mapping tools or it can be generated in XBRL by appropriate software.

iXBRL - taxonomies

http://www.xbrl-de tschland de/GermanAP 2002 02 15 endeutschland.de/GermanAP_2002_02_15_en_nav.html

h iWho uses it

“XBRL is already in practical use for specific p rposes in se eral co ntries andspecific purposes in several countries and projects are under way to introduce it in others. – Source:XBRL.orgg