Artificial Intelligence (AI) has significant potential for product design: AI can check technical and non-technical constraints on products, it can support a quick design of new product variants and new AI methods may also support creativity. But currently product design and AI are separate communities fostering different terms and theories. This makes a mapping of AI approaches to product design needs difficult and prevents new solutions. As a solution, this paper first clarifies important terms and concepts for the interdisciplinary domain of AI methods in product design. A key contribution of this paper is a new classification of design problems using the four characteristics decomposability, inter-dependencies, innovation and creativity. Definitions of these concepts are given where they are lacking. Early mappings of these concepts to AI solutions are sketched and verified using design examples. The importance of creativity in product design and a corresponding gap in AI is pointed out for future research.

A new feature to be found in modern CAD software releases is KBE (Knowledge Based Engineering) to support diagnosis, selection, and monitoring of tasks. KBE relies on capturing and storing experiential knowledge which includes proprietary design and manufacturing practices exercised during a product development cycle. KBE helps engineering companies to retain and preserve in-house knowledge and intellectual information. A related technology which could significantly augment problem solving capabilities in CAD software is AI (Artificial Intelligence), which was introduced in the mid-1980s. The purpose of AI is to learn and replicate human problem solving capabilities.

Studies in design methodology provide various structured approaches to the design process. Many books provide definitions and elaborations of the design process: In the structural engineering field, such books include Holgate (1986) and Lin and Stotesbury (1981). More generally, various design methods and techniques are described in Alexander (1964) and Jones (1970). These design methods share the characteristic of prescribing a general set of tasks to be performed by the designer. One problem with design methodologies is that such approaches prescribe what a designer should do but not how.

Models of design processes provide guidance in the development of knowledge-based systems for design. The basis for such models comes from research in design theory and methodology as well as problem solving in AI. Three models are presented: decomposition, case-based reasoning, and transformation. Each model provides a formalism for representing design knowledge and experience in distinct and complementary forms.