Intelligent Software Agents and their applications in business

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Intelligent Software Agents and their
applications in business
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The role of agent-orientation for IS

• primarily an implementation technology
• but also a modelling concept while
  implementation is done in conventional technology
  
• better way to cope with dynamics

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Why are agent concepts relevant to IS?

• conventional IT architectures are not able to
  fully address the rapidly increasing dynamics and
  complexity
• downsizing, towards component-based systems
• to add local coordination/cooperation
  intelligence to a software component

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Implications of AO on the IS development process?

• new understanding of SW architectures
• conflict local autonomy vs. behavior of the
  global system
• new test methods required
• new challenge life cycle for multiagent systems
• unclear, but important interactions between
  agent-based applications and the social /
  sociological system of enterprises.
  Organizational culture?

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Key components of an AO approach to IS?

• knowledge representation and reasoning
• problem-oriented cooperation between more or
  less autonomous "machines"
• Should everything be treated as an agent? NO!

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New German Research ProgramIntelligent Agents
and Realistic Business Scenarios

• task to be addressed distributed / multiagent
  planning of business processes in logistics
  (goods informations)
• domains manufacturing vs. health care
• approach collaboration of management science,
  information systems, computer science
• aim evaluating/adapting agent technology
  against/to industrial requirements