Reinforcement Learning: The Power of Big Data in Call Centers

If you're deeply involved in the study of artificial intelligence or automated predictive modeling, you may have come across the term "reinforcement learning," or mapping situations to actions to maximize some type of numerical reward signal. For humans, this process occurs naturally as we grow and experiment with our surroundings and see how our actions influence our rewards. Reinforcement learning deviates greatly from the normal means by which artificial intelligences are typically programmed. As noted in the book Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction by Richard S. Sutton and Andrew G. Barto, "the most important feature distinguishing reinforcement learning from other types of learning is that it uses training information that evaluates the action taken rather than instructs by giving correct actions." In short, reinforcement learning "teaches" machines how to learn from past experience and exploit that information to maximize a reward.