INF1505 Chapter 13: Intelligent Information Systems

An expert system should be used if one or more of the following conditions exists: • A lot of human expertise is needed but a single expert cannot tackle the problem on his or her own. (An expert system can integrate the experience and knowledge of several experts more easily.) • The knowledge that is needed can be represented as rules or heuristics; a well-defined algorithm is not available. • The decision or task has already been handled successfully by human experts, allowing the expert system to mimic human expertise. • The decision or task requires consistency and standardization. (Because computers are more accurate at following standard procedures, an expert system can be preferable to humans in this situation.) • The subject domain is limited. (Expert systems work better if the problem under investigation is narrow.) • The decision or task involves many rules (typically between 100 and 10,000) and complex logic. • There is a scarcity of experts in the organization, or key experts are retiring. (An expert system can be used to capture the knowledge and expertise of a long-time employee who is retiring.)