Comparing Expert Systems and Agent Technology for KM

Abstract

Agent technology offers a new means of effectively managing knowledge and addresses complex decision processes which heretofore appeared intractable. This chapter presents an overview and comparison of expert system and agent technologies, and shows the latter as a powerful extension in artificial intelligence for systems development. To illustrate, a system developed first using an expert system approach and then an agent-based approach are used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the agent-based approach. Last, the practical implications of a company adoption of agent-based technology for systems development are addressed.