expert system
What It Means
An expert system is a computer program designed to make decisions and solve problems the way a human expert would in a specific field. It contains a database of knowledge and rules that help it analyze situations and provide recommendations, much like having a top specialist available 24/7.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
Expert systems can automate complex decision-making processes, reduce reliance on scarce human experts, ensure consistent application of best practices, and operate continuously without fatigue or bias, potentially reducing costs while improving accuracy and availability of expertise.
Real-World Example
A bank uses an expert system for loan approval that evaluates credit applications by analyzing income, credit history, debt ratios, and market conditions using the same criteria and decision-making process that their best loan officers would use, but processing hundreds of applications simultaneously.
Common Confusion
People often think expert systems are the same as general AI or that they can learn and adapt on their own like humans, when they actually follow pre-programmed rules and knowledge and can only operate within their specific domain of expertise.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare, expert systems assist clinicians by providing diagnostic support, treatment recommendations, and clinical...
Finance: In finance, expert systems are used for credit scoring, fraud detection, and regulatory compliance monitoring by encodin...
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Includes:
- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"A form of AI that attempts to replicate a human's expertise in an area, such as medical diagnosis. It combines a knowledge base with a set of hand-coded rules for applying that knowledge. Machine-learning techniques are increasingly replacing hand coding."Source: Hutson,_Matthew
"Intelligent computer program that uses knowledge and inference procedures to solve problems that are difficult enough to require significant human expertise for their solution."Source: Reznik,_Leon
"An expert system is an intelligent computer program that uses knowledge and inference procedures to solve problems that are difficult enough to require significant human expertise for their solution."Source: OECD
"Computer system that provides for expertly solving problems in a given field or application area by drawing inferences from a knowledge base developed from human expertise."Source: IEEE_Soft_Vocab
"A computer system emulating the decision-making ability of a human expert through the use of reasoning, leveraging an encoding of domain-specific knowledge most commonly represented by sets of if-then rules rather than procedural code. The term “expert system” was used largely during the 1970s and ’80s amidst great enthusiasm about the power and promise of rule-based systems that relied on a “knowledge base” of domain-specific rules and rule-chaining procedures that map observations to conclusions or recommendations."Source: NSCAI
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