| The Web has sparked renewed interest in developing intelligent information systems that enable users to accomplish complex tasks in Web-centric environments with relative ease. Although artificially intelligent (AI) technologies such as expert systems and neural networks have been successfully used in aerospace, communication, medical, and financial applications, they have not made a significant impact on improving overall productivity due to their narrow scope. In contrast, the new breed of “intelligent information technologies” hold greater potential in that they can be applied to a large number of domains and a diverse set of problems. A generic intelligent-agent-based application, for instance, can be customized for different domains and a variety of problem scenarios. Several enabling technologies and techniques such as agent-based modeling, grid computing, data mining and knowledge discovery, data warehousing and business intelligence, fuzzy computing, machine learning and evolutionary algorithms, business components, and ontologies are being utilized in creating intelligent systems.
Intelligent-agent technology is emerging as one of the most important and rapidly advancing areas. Researchers are developing a number of agent-based applications and multi-agent systems in a variety of fields such as electronic commerce, supply-chain management, resource allocation, intelligent manufacturing, mass customization, industrial control, information retrieval and filtering, collaborative work, mobile commerce, decision support, and computer games. Research on various aspects of intelligent-agent technology and its applications is progressing at a very fast pace. Specifically, issues related to agent design, implementation, integration, deployment, evaluation and business value are actively being investigated. The authors of this book present some of the research results and application of agents and other intelligent-information technologies in various domains. |
