Regina Llopis, sales manager with AIA, Aplicaciones en Informatica Avanzada SA, a company that claims to be the only Spanish operation developing practical artificial intelligence software, says the AI market in Spain is virtually non-existent. In an interview with Computerworld Espana, Llopis maintains that it is only recently that Spanish companies have had the capability to offer artificial intelligence technology, and it is still perceived as something that only multi-nationals can supply, making it more expensive and less attractive. AIA believes it has the edge on other companies since it uses tools rather than shells, and it has fifth generation language skills. The company has just completed an expert system that will be distributed by Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, and the system uses Prolog to create applications. As Prolog works with logical predicates, AIA has built up a substantial library for monitoring graphics, for mathematical algorithms and numerical control. The company says its key activities are the generation of commercial prototypes, the creation of new products from applications and the creation of unrepeatable customised applications. Still a relatively small concern, AIA is hoping to increase turnover to $1m this year from $818,000 in 1990. Although there is a growing interest in AI techniques, there is a dearth of trained personnel, and the universities are not producing sufficient numbers of qualified programmers. AIA believes is focusing on industry and manufacturing sectors since there are many processes that would benefit from artificial intelligence. Also, the banking and insurance sectors require highly-specific applications which AIA claims are suited to artificial intelligence techniques. AIA has carried out a number of major projects with companies like Transportes de Barcelona where it has supplied a system for monitoring breakdowns in the underground railway, with Banesto which operates databases using conceptual data-gathering methodologies, and with Gas Madrid which has an expert system for network maintenance. AIA is planning to collaborate with Siemens-Nixdorf’s Software Development Centre in addition to signing agreements with the Centro de Calculo de Sabadell and IBM Corp’s Madrid-based Autonomous University’s Knowledge Engineering Centre. The company will concentrate on applying artificial intelligence techniques to personal computer and workstation-based local nets, rather than adapting the methodologies to mainframes, since the Spanish market is more oriented towards the former.
