In this article we will discuss about:- 1. Meaning of Intelligent Agents 2. Characteristics and Applications of Intelligent Agents.
Meaning of Intelligent Agents:
Intelligent Agents (IA) are software programs which represent a new technology with the potential to become one of the most important tools of information technology in the twenty-first century. IA can alleviate the most critical limitation of the Internet- information overflow, and can facilitate electronic commerce. Before we look at its capabilities.
Several names are used to describe intelligent agents- software agents, wizards, knowbots and softbots. The names tend to reflect the nature of the agent; the term agent is derived from the concept of agency, which means employing someone to act on the behalf of the user. A computerised agent represents a person and interacts with others to accomplish a predefined task.
A good working definition is this: An intelligent agent is a software entity which senses its environment and then carries out some set of operations on behalf of a user (or a program), with some degree of autonomy, and in so doing employs some knowledge or representation of the user’s goals or desires or in other words IA are software programs which work in the background to carry out specific, repetitive, predictable tasks for an individual user, business processor software application.
Characteristics and Applications of Intelligent Agents:
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Several traits or abilities exist which many people think of when they are discussing about intelligent agents:
a. Capability to work on their own (autonomy)
b. Exhibition of goal-oriented behaviour
c. Transportable over networks (mobility)
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d. Dedication to a single repetitive task
e. Ability to interact with humans, systems, and other agents
f. Inclusion of a knowledge base
g. Ability to learn
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Although not all intelligent agents have all of these capabilities, they are very useful in facilitating some tasks such as:
1. Information Access and Navigation:
Information access is today’s major application of intelligent agents, and it is done by use of different search engines.
2. Decision Support and Empowerment:
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Knowledge workers need support, especially in decision-making.
3. Repetitive Office Activities:
There is a pressing need to automate tasks performed by administrative and clerical personnel in functional areas, such as sales or customer support, in order to reduce labour costs and increase office productivity. Today, labour costs are estimated to be as much as 60 percent of the total cost of information delivery.
4. Mundane Personal Activities:
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In our fast-paced society, time-strapped individuals need new ways to minimise the time spent on routine personal tasks like booking airline tickets. One specific form of intelligent agents is, the voice- activated interface agent which reduces the burden on the user of having to explicitly command the computer.
5. Search and Retrieval:
It is not possible to directly manipulate a distributed database system in a business setting which involves millions of data objects. Users have to delegate the task of searching and cost comparison to agents. These agents perform the tedious, time-consuming, and repetitive tasks of searching databases, retrieving and filtering information, and delivering results to the user.
6. Domain Experts:
It is advisable to model costly expertise and make it widely available. “Expert” software agents could be models of real-world agents, such as translators, lawyers, diplomats, union negotiators, stock-brokers, and even clergy.
7. Management Activities:
Intelligent agents can even be used to assist managers in performing their activities. Some management-oriented tasks which an agent can do: advise, alert, broadcast, browse, critique, distribute, enlist, empower, explain, filter, guide, identify, match, monitor, navigate, negotiate, organize, present, query, report, remind, retrieve, schedule, search, secure, solicit, store, suggest, summaries, reach, translate and watch.
For example, the wizards found in Microsoft Office software tools have built-in capabilities to show users how to accomplish various tasks, such as formatting documents or a creating graphs, and to anticipate when users need assistance.
At the Almade Research Centre of IBM an IA works which facilitates the learning process for computer programmers who are learning the programming language LISP. COACH (Cognitive Adaptive Computer Help) contains three knowledge components which enable it to function.
One component compiles information about the user’s LISP capabilities, including the frequent mistakes. Another component maintains information about LISP itself and the final component stores strategies for coaching. COACH ensures that students of LISP receive a lot more through learning experience than they would otherwise.
Of special interest are intelligent agents used to cruise networks, including the Internet, in search of information AT & T pioneered in this area with its Personal Link service. Personal Link used an object-oriented remote programming language called Telescript from California’s General Magic Inc. to establish an environment for e-mail, on-line news and an electronic market place.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts USA Company, Agents Inc., sells an agent which caters to consumers on the Internet. Users send critiques of movies and music to Agents’ website, Firefly. When they want to select a new movie or buy a CD, they can supply data on their personal favourites and Firefly will produce a list of similar items based on the critiques.