There are no set areas of AI when it is looked at from what the AI system does. This is because many of the systems do many different things. For example, a robot many include areas of Natural Language Processing, Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning that help it to do its job.

One website says the field of AI can be spilt into four main sections.

• Pattern Recognition – Recognising patters in given data.
• Robotics – Allowing mechanical devices to navigate and manipulate their environment.
• Natural Language Processing – Communicating with humans through natural text and speech.
• Artificial Life - Modelling and mimicking living systems.

This is quite different to another site that says that major areas of artificial intelligence research can be split into seven categories.

• Natural Language Processing – the ability of computers to communicate with people in natural language.
• Computer Vision – the analysing of images to find features of the images.
• Knowledge based systems – Systems that contain a ‘database’ of knowledge and can help in finding information, making decisions and planing.
• Robotics – Create devices that can manipulate and interact with its environment.
• Machine Learning – Analysing data and treads to help with a task latter.
• Automatic Programming – The creation of programs from a programmer’s specification.
• Intelligent computer-aided instruction – Customising the tutoring of a student to fit the students learning style.

A third website has yet another way of defining the main areas. On this website, the areas are divided into ten areas.

• Knowledge representation and articulation – Displaying information in an expressive and efficient form.
• Learning and adaptation – Analysing data to determine general trends, facts, and techniques from instruction, experience, and collected data.
• Deliberation, planning, and acting – Ways to make decisions plans or achieve specified goals, as well as analysing the performance of the plans and designs.
• Speech and language processing – Communicating and translating among natural written and spoken languages.
• Image understanding and synthesis - Analysing photographs, diagrams, and videos.
• Manipulation and locomotion - Copying and improving the abilities of natural hands, arms, feet, and bodies.
• Autonomous agents and robots – The creation of robots, capable of interacting with the environment and making decisions independently.
• Multi-agent systems – Enabling any AI systems to interact and work together.
• Cognitive modelling – Techniques and the copying of the way people think and manipulate knowledge.
• Mathematical foundations – Mathematical analysing the previous areas stated.

The above areas of AI can be summarized into five main areas. That will be covered in more depth in other articles.