Designing an AI Expert System

Expert systems technology, as a category of computer based artificial intelligence, offers a number of possibilities for further automation and improvements in managing office documents. Because of its potential, expert systems represent an interesting subject for study and implementation. To design and develop an expert system application is a challenge. Different expert systems are already being applied in many areas of human activity. Classification of different subject domains is one of the popular targets of expert systems. Yet, there are not many expert systems developed for office document management. In the book, "Artificial Intelligence--Programming Techniques in Basic," an elementary expert system is described as "one of the easiest computer programs to develop from a programming standpoint."(1) When developing an expert system, it is only necessary to ask a series of questions; input the answers; have a series of IF-THEN statements to eliminate any conclusions that do not fit the data provided; and print the conclusions that were not eliminated. This knowledge, combined with some skill with the QUICKBASIC programming language, coupled with the author's understanding of the scheme for classification of office documents in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), gave impetus to the project. It was named a Classification of Office Documents Expert System, abbreviated as CLOD-X. The project became more than just a design and development of a single application. It became a means to learn and understand expert systems technology as a category of artificial intelligence. It also became a gateway to the exploration of possibilities for wider use of what expert systems can offer to records and document management within the contemporary office environment.