The papers in this volume are the Applications papers presented at ES 2000, the Twentieth SGES International Conference on Knowledge Based Systems and Applied Artificial Intelligence, held in Cambridge in December 2000. The scope of the Application papers has expanded over recent years to cover not just innovative applications using traditional knowledge based systems, but also to include applications demonstrating the whole range of AI technologies. These papers continue to illustrate the maturity of AI as a commercially viable technology to solve real world problems. This is the eighth volume in the Applications and Innovations in Intelligent Systems series. The series serves as a key reference as to how AI technology has enabled organisations to solve complex problems and gain significant business benefits. The Technical Stream papers from ES 200 are published as a companion volume under the title Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XVII.