Artificial neural networks and their business applications

Artificial neural networks are increasingly popular in today’s business fields. They have been hailed as the greatest technological advance since the invention of transistors. The purpose of this paper is to answer two of the most frequently asked questions: ‘What are neural networks?’ ‘Why are they so popular in today’s business field?’ The paper reviews the common characteristics of neural networks and discusses the feasibility of neural-net applications in business fields. It then presents four actual application cases and identifies the limitations of the current neural-net technology.