After introducing the concept of artificial intelligence (AI), the authors of this text discuss the scope and limitations of AI technology in the various subfields that are expected to be relevant to business management systems - natural language processing, voice processing, image processing, and intelligent robots. The authors survey each subfield in some detail, not because they expect business managers to absorb all the technical details but because a proper appreciation of the potential of AI technology must be founded on the technicalities of the discipline. Therefore, substantial detail and follow-up references are provided for the reader to explore to whatever depth seems most appropriate. The authors also take a close look at expert systems technology as this subfield of AI has a reasonable claim to be the major commercialization of AI technology to date. They discuss the scope and limitations of this particular technology, and present its advantages and disadvantages with respect to applications in business.
Having surveyed the technical possibilities, the authors present the resources for AI that are available: technical resources, both software and hardware, and human resources. In the final part of the book they examine the likely impacts of AI technology from the management perspective.