"Intelligent databases are databases that manage information in a natural way, making information easy to store, access, and use."
(Intelligent Database Tools & Applications by Kamran Parsaye and Mark Chignell)
The purpose of an intelligent database is "decision support." It is meant to assist the expert by providing easy access to key information.
"Early maps only showed a few well-known features like the 'Pillars of Hercules' (the modern Straits of Gibraltar) or the island of Sicily. Once the map was outlined in terms of its major features, succeeding generations of mapmakers filled in the details. . . . Similarly, the concentric designer begins by sketching out the main features, based on the key constraints, and then successively elaborates these until the details are crystallized."
(Expert Systems for Experts by Parsay & Chignell, p. 53)