Intermediate · Cognitive

Decision Making

Visual diagram · (in preparation) · Math · (in preparation) · Worked example · 3 difficulty levels.

TL;DR. Choosing actions or recommendations under uncertainty, often using probabilistic or utility-based reasoning.

Technical Definition

Choosing actions or recommendations under uncertainty, often using probabilistic or utility-based reasoning.

How it works

Decision-making spans bandit algorithms, Markov decision processes, contextual rankers, and LLM-driven judgment. Good decisions weigh expected value, risk, fairness, and downstream effects — increasingly the focus of agentic AI systems.

Related Concepts

• Reinforcement Learning — A paradigm where an agent learns to make decisions by receiving rewards or penalties from its environment through trial and error.
• Reasoning — An AI system's ability to draw logical, multi-step conclusions from given information.
• Planning — Deciding on a sequence of actions to achieve a goal under given constraints.