An artifical intelligence application that uses a knowledge base of human expertise to aid in solving problems. The degree of problem solving is based on the quality of the data and rules obtained from the human expert. The expert system derives its answers by running the knowledge base through an inference engine, a software program that interacts with the user and processes the results from the rules and data in the knowledge base. These systems are typically used in applications such as contract bidding, financial planning, medical diagnosis, and equipment repair, among others.
A computer-controlled system that executes functions normally requiring the decision-making ability of someone with a particular skill.