WHY INTELLIGENT AGENTS?

13.5 WHY INTELLIGENT AGENTS?

Alvin Toffler, in Future Shock (1970), warned of an impending flood, not of water but of information. He predicted that we would eventually be so inundated with data that we would be paralyzed and unable to choose between options. His prediction is

becoming a reality.

Information overload is one of the unintended by-products of the information age. Managers and other decision-makers cannot be expected to read every document that crosses

their desks, every relevant datum available in databases, every article in the magazines and journals to which they subscribe, or even all the e-mail that hits their computer mailboxes. The Gartner Group believes that

However, the real crisis began to develop with the emergence of the Internet. The Internet

PART IV INTELLIGENT DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS

Thousands of new systems and even more new users bring new sources of data onto the Net every minute. It can be an overwhelming experience to log onto the Net for the first time, because so many resources are immediately available. Experienced users look for ways to filter the data so that they can make sense out of the streams of information found online. Search engines and directories help with the winnowing process, but even they bring up volumes of data, much of which is only loosely tied to the immediate concerns of the decision-maker. In addition, search engines rarely discriminate between copies of the same information offered through different sources, and as a result replication adds to the pile of useless information.

In spite of all of this, managers are expected to take account of key business infor- mation and make good decisions.

A major value of intelligent agents is that they are able to assist in searching through all the data. They save time by making decisions about what is relevant to the user. With these agents at work, the competent user's decision-making ability is enhanced with information rather than paralyzed by too much input. Agents are artificial intelligence's answer to a need created by computers (Nwana and Ndumu, 1999).

Information access and navigation are today's major applications of intelligent agents, but there are several other reasons why this technology is expected to grow rapidly. For example, intelligent agents can improve computer network management and security, support e-commerce, empower employees, and increase productivity and quality (Papazoglou, 2001; Vlahavas et al., 2002). The advantage of agents can be even greater when a wireless computing environment is involved;-Agents can handle many routine activities that need to be done quickly. The cost of non-agent-based wireless systems for information discovery is very high. The reasons for the success of agents are listed below:

 Decision support. There is a need for increased support for tasks performed by knowledge workers, especially in the decision-making area. Professionals who can make timely and knowledgeable decisions greatly increase their effectiveness and the success of their businesses in the marketplace.

 Frontline customer support. As indicated in Chapter 8, there is a need to empower employees interacting with customers at the frontline. Such empowerment can be achieved by using intelligent agents.

 Repetitive office activities. There is a pressing need to automate tasks performed by administrative and clerical personnel in functions such as sales or customer support, so as to reduce labor costs and increase office productivity.

 Mundane personal activity. In a fast-paced society, time-strapped people need new ways to minimize the time spent on routine personal tasks, such as booking airline tickets, so that they can devote more time to professional activities.

 Search and retrieval. It is not possible to directly manipulate a distributed database system in an e-comrnerce setting with millions of data objects. Users will have to relegate the tasks of searching, costing, and other comparisons to agents. These agents perform the tedious, time-consuming, repetitive tasks of searching databases, retrieving and filtering information, and delivering it to users.

 Domain experts. It is advisable to model costly expertise and make it widely available. For example, expert software agents could be models of real-world agents, such as translators, lawyers, diplomats, union negotiators, stockbrokers, and even clergy.

Here are some management-oriented tasks that an agent can perform: advise, alert, broadcast, browse, critique, distribute, enlist, empower, explain, filter, guide, identify, match, monitor, navigate, negotiate, organize, present, query, remind, report, retrieve,

166. CHAPTER 13 INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS OVER THE INTERNET

In short, software agents can improve the productivity of the end-user by performing a variety of tasks. The most important of these are gathering information,filtering it,

and using it for decision support.