Conference heron::euro_swas_ai

112.0. "Positioning AI products according to users" by BONNET::COUTIER () Mon Jun 26 1989 13:02

    Please find below an attempt to position different AI products based
    upon the type of users.
    
    Your comments are encouraged.
                                                                              
    Pascal
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    =TENTATIVE POSITIONING OF KEY AI PRODUCTS=
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Preliminary note:
            
There are many ways of differenciating AI products: functionalities, 
performance, types of applications, types of users, etc..

The following is an attempt made at positioning key AI products sold by Digital, 
according to the TYPE OF USER. We realize that this classification is 
"artificial" and does not always map onto the "real world".

We identified 2 main types of users, each of them having 2 "sub-types":

	1. "AI Professionals": they are AI specialists (and position themselves 
as such), because of their educational background and/or their experience in 
this technology. They usually approach problems through their "perspective", 
i.e. they begin solving problems with an AI tool, and later look at how to 
connect this application of other existing information systems. They are usually 
found in R&D groups but can also belong to IS departments with the qualification 
of "local AI specialist". Within this category, one can differenciate 2 
sub-classes": 
		* the hacker type, strongly interested in the product features 
		and working primarily with base languages to build tools and 
		custom applications.
		* the knowledge engineer type, more interested in working with 
		experts on the knowledge acquisition and representation 
		techniques geared towards the development of prototypes and 
		full-scale expert systems.

	2. " non AI Professionals": they are programmers and software engineers 
who do not have a strong AI background, but have (or will have) to use this 
technology to solve specific problems, as part of a larger project. They use 
this technology as any other computing technology and are concerned with the 
robustness and the integration features of the AI products. Within this class, 
once can differenciate 2 sub-classes:

		* IS/DP programmers and software engineers, who usually work 
		with languages like Cobol, Fortran, C or ADA, as well as 
		databases and sometimes use CASE tools
		* Application developers found in operational departments, who 
		typically use higher-level tools like 4GL's to build specific 
		"vertical" applications

With this - debatable - classification in mind, the following is a positioning 
statement for major AI tools:


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			AI PROFESSIONALS		NON AI PROFESSIONALS
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		"Hackers"	K.E.'s		Software Eng.	Appl.Developers
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LISP		    x

				     (market trend)
OPS5				  x ---------------> x


NEXPERT				  x
			    (entry-level)	  

EPITOOL				  x


VAX D. E.						               x

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