What Is A Reasoning Engine? Business and IT Glossary

Reasoning Engine, (aka reasoner, semantic reasoner, or rules engine) is an application or subsystem that makes logical inferences based on a set of axioms (the rules) and input data. The inferences may be used to evaluate the input or to recommend actions or update the rules.

Typically, first-order predicate logic is used to derive the inferences (first order predicate logic is also used in mathematics to formalize number theory and set theory, and in elementary computer science to explain basic principles that may be instantiated in IF THEN ELSE programming logic).

Representative Vendors: Google, Gridspace, IBM, Microsoft Maluuba, Cisco (MindMeld), Nuance, Pop Up Archive, Rev.ai, SayIt, and Viv Labs.

Reasoning Engines