Practical Design of Intelligent Agent Systems

Abstract

Intelligent agents trace their roots to the artificial intelligence community. Unfortunately, many early customers were ‘burned’ by their experience with artificial intelligence, and are standoffish when hearing about so-called ‘intelligent agents.’ Yet several market studies (Janca, 1996) include interviews with successful adopters. These early adopters do have to live with constraints, but universally report that the agent systems save them time and/or money. It is interesting to note that not one of the interviewed early adopters would even consider removing the functioning system.