Why Use KBS?

An artificial intelligence (AI) structure requires a knowledge-based system (KBS) to provide the information that is required by the AI. It needs the KBS in order to problem-solve processes to support human decision-making, learning, and action. There is another type of knowledge-based software and that is human users. It is not only AI´s that use it but humans do for different reasons as detailed below.

Human usage

They are designed in order to enable users to retrieve and use the knowledge stored within them. Within organizations they are used for departments such as help desk or knowledge sharing within the organization from department to department. Also, they can continue information to troubleshoot items within the company, user manuals, white papers and offer other types of assistance which is needed for different employees in various departments. The information may not be department specific, but can be considered a general organization question. Therefore, it is extremely useful and a vital part of most organizations business strategy. Normally, a search engine will be used to find the piece of information that the user requires or the user can have categories on their browser dependent on the company´s structure and ease of use of information.

There is no standardization with knowledge base, below are just categories which are used frequently in relation to knowledge bases:

Frequently asked questions: Abbreviated to FAQ, are a list of questions and answers that are used commonly in certain contexts in relation to a particular topic. They are extremely popular and used on most with popular service and product websites such as phone providers, banks, department stores etc.

How-to: Is an informal, short list of how to complete a specific task. Generally this is used for non-experts in particular fields such as ´How to look after goldfish´. They are extremely popular for home use and users like to use them as a challenge and to make them feel that they have completed a task without human intervention. Also, it is a good source of information if you have problems with particular items within your house or other products and you do not want to pay the cost of an expert coming to look at it.

Process & Procedures: A process is a set of actions which is required in order to achieve a particular end. A procedure is an established or official way for doing something. Therefore the two go hand-in-hand, because their end goal is in order to achieve the same thing. A procedure is normally set by companies in order to have strict procedures to follow in order to process the following event. Such as filling in paperwork or having appraisals in order to go through the procedure of having a promotion.

Tutorial: It consists of teaching by example and concentrates on a specific task. For instance it is would be teaching a specific computer software application which has been upgraded, therefore a tutorial would be produced to show the difference between the old version and the new version. Therefore, it is transferring knowledge and may be used as a part of a learning process. It is interactive and specific than a book or a lecture.

Reference: It is the relation from one object to another or acts as a means by which to connect to another object. At times it is used to link two objects together. The second object is called the referent of the first object.