Module 1: Foundations of AI, BoK I.A
Use cases and benefits
The course groups AI uses into 7 buckets: Recognition, Event detection, Forecasting, Personalisation, Interaction support, Goal-driven optimisation and Recommendation. Match the example to the bucket and the marks are yours.
| Category | What it does | Exam-ready examples |
|---|---|---|
| Recognition | Identifies images, faces, speech, text patterns | Face matching, retailer photo-to-product search, spotting manufacturing defects, plagiarism detectors |
| Event detection | Spots patterns that signal something happened | Credit card & benefits fraud, goals/touchdowns in sports video, cyber events in systems |
| Forecasting | Predicts future values | Sales, revenue & demand, rideshare surge demand & pricing, weather |
| Personalisation | Builds unique customer profiles for relevant experiences | Tailored website journeys that lift retail sales |
| Interaction support | Assists people during transactions | Chatbots & virtual assistants, government student loan help |
| Goal-driven optimisation | Finds best solutions to a defined problem | Supply chain fixes, driving routes & idle time for fleets |
| Recommendation | Suggests options, supports decisions | Product & viewing suggestions, decision support for medical diagnoses, adjudicating disability cases |
Headline benefits:
- Faster and more accurate than humans across broader data ranges
- Medical assessments, especially scan evaluation, can beat human accuracy
- Legal predictions → reviews case law, issues and regulations more broadly and quickly
- Big-data style power → huge volume, tremendous velocity, wide variety
- Automation removes human error and bias from mundane, repetitive decision-making
Key terms - quick answers
What is “Recognition”?
AI use-case bucket identifying images, faces, speech and text patterns.
What is “Event detection”?
AI use-case bucket spotting patterns that signal something happened, e.g. fraud, cyber events.
What is “Forecasting”?
AI use-case bucket predicting future values, e.g. demand, surge pricing, weather.
What is “Goal-driven optimisation”?
AI use-case bucket finding the best solution to a defined problem, e.g. supply chain, routing.
Sources and study method
This independent lesson uses active recall, spaced retrieval and scenario practice. Read the full study method.