Bell Atlantic
Bell Atlantic developed telephone technician dispatch system. When a customer reports
a telephone problem to Bell Atlantic, the company must decide what type of technician
to dispatch to resolve the issue. Starting in 1991, this decision was made using a hand -
crafted expert system, but in 1999 it was replaced by another set of rules created with
machine learning. The learned rules save Bell Atlantic more than 10 million dollars
per year because they make fewer erroneous decisions. In addition, the original expert
system had reached a stage in its evolution where it could not be maintained cost -
effectively. Because the learned system was built by training it on examples, it is easy
to maintain and to adapt to regional differences and changing cost structures