Initially, research was concerned with heuristic search, including knowledge-based approaches to computer chess. The emphasis then gradually shifted and expanded to the areas of machine learning, knowledge representation, computer-aided multi-attribute decision making, qualitative reasoning and modelling, and combinatorial optimisation. This provided a solid basis for later application projects. In 1982, the development and implementation of AI tools started and soon resulted in practical applications. By now, over 60 application oriented projects were accomplished in a number of domains including: financial, management, project/enterprise assessment, metallurgy, geology, mechanical engineering, civil engineering and medicine. Most of the applications were based on Assistant Professional, an inductive learning system, and DEX, a computer-aided decision making system. These two systems, developed by the Jozef Stefan Institute AI Laboratory, are also commercially available. Several other systems have the status of academic software, including GINESYS, RETIS, LINUS, and m-FOIL. These systems implement various approaches to machine learning: attribute-based learning, regression tree learning and inductive logic programming. They compare favourably with the best comparable systems worldwide.
In addition to the work done at the Jozef Stefan Institute and the Faculty of Computer and Information Science, research in AI was also carried out at some other institutions, including the National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Maribor. Prior to the foundation of SLAIS, the AI researchers were associated within YUGAI, the Yugoslav Artificial Intelligence Group.
The following AI related international meetings were organised in Slovenia: