1. The Decision-Making Process IT Brainpower
Introduction
DECISION SUPPORT AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Brainpower for Your Business
Types of Decisions
The Decision-Making Process
IT Brainpower
How IT Brainpower Supports the Decision-Making Process

2. TYPES OF DECISIONS YOU FACE
STRUCTURED DECISIONS - those with a set of steps that guarantee the correct solution.
NONSTRUCTURED DECISIONS - those with no rules or criteria that guarantee a good solution.
RECURRING DECISIONS - those you make repeatedly, often periodically.
NONRECURRING DECISIONS - those you make infrequently, perhaps only once.

3. PHASES OF THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
1. INTELLIGENCE -Find what to fix
2. DESIGN - Find fixes
3. CHOICE - Pick a fix
4. IMPLEMENTATION - Apply the fix

4. TYPES OF IT BRAINPOWER Decision Support Systems (DSS)
Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS)
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Artificial Intelligence Systems (AI)
Expert Systems
Neural Networks
Genetic Algorithms
Intelligent Agents

5. A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM (DSS)
is a highly flexible and interactive IT system that is designed to support decision making when the problem is not structured.
A DSS assists you in making a decision, as opposed to making the decision for you.

6. A DSS Can Help With Analysis Tasks Like
Deciding where to spend advertising dollars
Analyzing sales trend information
Analyzing drug interactions
Developing airline schedules
Pricing products

7. A DSS Has Three Components
DATA MANAGEMENT - to allow you to store and access information.
MODEL MANAGEMENT - to allow you to store and access models.
USER INTERFACE MANAGEMENT - to allow you to easily manipulate information and models.

8. STEPS IN DEVELOPING A DSS
5-11
DSS
STEPS IN DEVELOPING A DSS
1.INTELLIGENCE
Do you need a DSS?
What should it do?
What does it need?
2.DESIGN
What can you buy/build?
3.CHOICE
What will you buy/build?
4.IMPLEMENTATION
Build or install DSS
Learn, test, and evaluate the DSS

9. A GROUP DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM (GDSS)
is a type of decision support system that facilitates the formulation of and solution to problems by a team.
A GDSS helps a team to generate ideas, identify strengths and weaknesses, choose an alternative, and reach a consensus.

10. A GDSS Can Help With Team Tasks Like
Determining new product design
Evaluating the impact of new competition
Formulating a strategic plan

11. THE STEPS OF GROUP DECISION MAKING
GDSS
THE STEPS OF GROUP DECISION MAKING
1.Brainstorming - generate ideas
2.Issue Categorization and Analysis - classify ideas
3.Ranking and Voting - prioritize alternatives, reach consensus
See Figure 5.9, page 174

12. PEOPLE IN A GDSS Team: People united by a common goal
GDSS facilitator has two roles
Nontechnical: run the meeting
Technical: operate IT components

13. IT TOOLS IN A GDSS Groupware - software than enables team work
DSS Capabilities - software that enables team decision making
Telecommunications - hardware and software that connect computers

14. A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS)
GDSS
A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS)
is a decision support system designed specifically to work with spatial information.
A GIS represents information thematically in overlapping layers, each of which shows a different aspect of the total picture.

15. A GIS Can Help With Spatial Analysis Tasks Like
GDSS
A GIS Can Help With Spatial Analysis Tasks Like
Identifying the best site to locate a branch office
Targeting pockets of potential customers
Repositioning promotions and advertising

16. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)
is the science of making machines imitate human thinking and behavior.
AI helps machines perform tasks that require complex and varying sets of steps such as retrieving debris from the ocean floor.

17. TYPES OF AI USED IN BUSINESS
EXPERT SYSTEMS
NEURAL NETWORKS
GENETIC ALGORITHMS
INTELLIGENT AGENTS
70% of the top 500 companies use AI as part of decision support.

18. Expert System
AN EXPERT SYSTEM
is an artificial intelligence system that applies reasoning capabilities to reach a conclusion.
An expert system captures expertise from a human expert and applies it to a problem.
Auditing and tax planning
Diagnosing illnesses
Managing forest resources

19. WHAT EXPERT SYSTEMS CAN DO
Provide consistency in decision making
Provide new information
Reduce costs
Handle massive amounts of information
Reduce errors
Improve customer service

20. WHAT EXPERT SYSTEMS CAN’T DO
Handle all types of domain expertise
Solve problems other than those for which they are designed
Apply common sense or judgment to a problem

21. Neural Network
A NEURAL NETWORK
is an artificial intelligence system which is capable of learning because it’s patterned after the human brain.
A neural network simulates the human ability to classify things based on the experience of seeing many examples.

22. A Neural Network Can Perform Pattern Recognition Tasks Like
Distinguishing different chemical compounds
Detecting anomalies in human tissue that may signify disease
Reading handwriting
Detecting fraud in credit card use

23. Genetic Algorithm
A GENETIC ALGORITHM
is an artificial intelligence system that mimics the evolutionary, survival-of-the-fittest processes to generate increasingly better solutions to a problem.
Genetic algorithms produce several generations of solutions, choosing the best of the current set for each new generation.

24. A Genetic Algorithm Can Generate Lots of Solutions As In
Generating human faces based on a few known features.
Generating solutions to routing problems.
Generating stock portfolios.

25. Intelligent Agent
AN INTELLIGENT AGENT
is an artificial intelligence system that can move around your computer or network performing repetitive tasks independently, adapting itself to your preferences.
An intelligent agent is like a travel agent in that it performs tasks that you stipulate.

26. An Intelligent Agent Can Perform Tasks Like
Acting as a personal electronic assistant to collect, send, and prioritize electronic information such as .
Finding and retrieving information from a database.
Finding and retrieving information across networks.

27. How Does an Intelligent Agent Do That?
An intelligent agent (usually) combines the capabilities of two or more of the most modern software technologies such as expert systems, neural networks, genetic algorithms, object-oriented programming, and so on.

28. AI
Starting Information
Expert’s know-how
Acceptable patterns
Set of possible solutions
Your preferences
AI System
Expert Systems
Neural Networks
Genetic Algorithms
Intelligent Agents
Problem Type
Diagnostic or prescriptive
Identification, classification, prediction
Optimal solution
Specific and repetitive tasks
Based On
Strategies of experts
The human brain
Biological evolution
One or more AI techniques

29. AI SYSTEMS CAN BE COMBINED WITH DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
IT Brainpower
AI SYSTEMS CAN BE COMBINED WITH DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS
DSSs can incorporate one or more expert systems creating an intelligent DSS, a DSS/ES, or a knowledge-based DSS.
Neural networks can be combined with GISs to apply pattern recognition capabilities to spatial information.

30. A HYBRID INTELLIGENT SYSTEM
IT Brainpower
A HYBRID INTELLIGENT SYSTEM
is an IT system which combines two or more artificial intelligence systems.
Neural networks and expert systems can be combined to create a “trainable” expert system.
Neural networks and genetic algorithms can be combined to train neural networks.