Expert systems in UK business: a critical assessment

The main purpose of this survey was to update a survey report prepared for the UK Alvey Directorate during 1984. The update was focused on business, and had to be qualitative because the increased confidentiality associated with the majority of projects precluded a quantitative analysis, and is confined to a synthesis of the impressions we have obtained. The survey was not intended to be representative. On the contrary, organizations were identified as being amongst those most likely to provide interesting application experience. This led to an arbitrary selection. For example, all banks were excluded because it was felt they were not yet ready to talk of their experiences. The companies approached consisted of five organizations visited in 1983, five further user companies and five service companies (e.g. consultants and software houses).