It is useful to note that many of the reasons why some otherwise meritorious AI applications fail have nothing to do with the AI per se, but rather, with systems engineering and organizational issues. Some embedded AI systems may work well for years on a software platform that is orphaned and porting it would be prohibitively expensive. The delivered application system might work well, but it could be hard to maintain internally. The system may work according to the sponsor's requirements, but it might not be applied to the part of the problem that delivers the largest economic results; or the system might not produce enough visible organizational benefits to protect it in subsequent budget battles.

Narrowly focused task and domain specific AI has been applied successfully for more than twenty five years, and has produced immense value in industry and government. It doesn’t lead directly to artificial general intelligence (AGI), but it does have real problem solving value. It is useful to note that many of the reasons why some otherwise meritorious AI applications fail have nothing to do with the AI per se, but rather, with systems engineering and organizational issues. For example: the domain expert is pulled out to work on more critical projects; the application champion rotates out of his/her position; or the sponsor changes priorities. A system may not make it past an initial pilot test for logistical vs. substantive technical reasons. Some embedded AI systems may work well for years on a software platform that is orphaned and porting it would be prohibitively expensive. A system may work well in a pilot test, but it might not scale for huge numbers of users without extensive performance optimization. The core AI system may be great but the user interface could be suboptimal. The delivered application system might work well, but it could be hard to maintain internally. The system may work according to the sponsor’s requirements, but it might not be applied to the part of the problem that delivers the largest economic results; or the system might not produce enough visible organizational benefits to protect it in subsequent budget battles. Alternatively, the documented results may be quite strong, but may not be communicated effectively across organizational boundaries. All software projects are vulnerable to one or more of these problems. The fact that some software projects have a relatively small percentage of their total code in embedded AI methods doesn’t make them an exception. However, knowing about these potential problems could help AI project teams to be proactive about avoiding them whenever possible.

This editorial introduces the articles published in the AI Magazine special issue on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI), based on a selection of papers that appeared in the IAAI-05 conference, which occurred July 9-13 2005 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. IAAI is the premier venue for learning about AI's impact through deployed applications and emerging AI application technologies. The emerging applications track features technologies that are rapidly maturing to the point of application. Three articles from the emerging technology track were particularly innovative and demonstrated some unique technology features ripe for deployment.

This editorial introduces the articles published in the AI Magazine special issue on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI), based on a selection of papers that appeared in the IAAI-05 conference, which occurred July 9-13 2005 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. IAAI is the premier venue for learning about AI's impact through deployed applications and emerging AI application technologies. Case studies of deployed applications with measurable benefits arising from the use of AI technology provide clear evidence of the impact and value of AI technology to today's world. The emerging applications track features technologies that are rapidly maturing to the point of application. The six articles selected for this special issue are extended versions of papers that appeared at the conference. Three of the articles describe deployed applications that are already in use in the field. Three articles from the emerging technology track were particularly innovative and demonstrated some unique technology features ripe for deployment.

We are pleased to publish this special selection of articles from the Sixteenth Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-04), which occurred July 27-29, 2004 in San Jose, California. IAAI is the premier venue for learning about AI's impact through deployed applications and emerging AI technologies. The emerging applications track features technologies that are rapidly maturing to the point of application. The other three articles, which are from the emerging technology track, were selected because they are particularly innovative and show great potential for deployment.

We are pleased to publish this special selection of articles from the Sixteenth Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-04), which occurred July 27-29, 2004 in San Jose, California. IAAI is the premier venue for learning about AI's impact through deployed applications and emerging AI technologies. Case studies of deployed applications with measurable benefits arising from the use of AI technology provide clear evidence of the impact and value of AI technology to today's world. The emerging applications track features technologies that are rapidly maturing to the point of application. The seven articles selected for this special issue are extended versions of the papers that appeared at the conference. Four of the articles describe deployed applications that are already in use in the field. The other three articles, which are from the emerging technology track, were selected because they are particularly innovative and show great potential for deployment.