Essentials of Knowledge Management

5.5. Pattern Matching

Pattern matching, the major feature ascribed to programs in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), provides the foundation for many aspects of Knowledge Management. From a business perspective, the technology ideally enables a knowledge worker with relatively little experience to make decisions that otherwise would have required someone with much more experience. Examples of pattern matching applications in the realm of AI include expert systems, intelligent agents, and machine learning systems.

5.5.1. Expert Systems

Pattern matching is the basic technology underlying expert systems—programs that can make humanlike decisions, especially reasoning under conditions of uncertainty. Expert systems are also useful in helping experts work out a process, such as medical diagnosis. Once the process is distilled into rules, the logic can be incorporated into the standard programming environment or delivered as graphical decision diagram.

As an example of how pattern matching technology can be applied to Knowledge Management, consider the" system illustrated in Exhibit 5.4. In this rule-based expert system, DecisionPro, by Vanguard Software, Inc., rules are created in a decision tree format, as show at the bottom of the exhibit. The end user sees a simple sequence of questions (top left on the exhibit) and eventually is presented with a simple textual response.

EXHIBIT 5.4. EXHIBIT 5.4

5.5.2. Intelligent Agents

Intelligent agents, which are also known as bots ...