Computers, including intelligent systems, assist human decision making in many ways. Decision aids can provide information involved in deciding, or information pertinent to evaluating states of the world. To support these situation assessment and monitoring activities, computers can integrate and display information and assist in replanning. When we deconstruct such generic tasks, most of the component tasks reduce to option generation, option selection, and outcome evaluation.

But how well do such tools really help humans deal with the difficulties of deciding itself--for instance, adapting to changing circumstances or coping with situations that are both unfamiliar and infrequent? What is a decision? After discussing this question, the authors focus on new and potentially useful applications of intelligent-systems technologies.