Origins of "Business Intelligence"

The term "business intelligence" was coined by computer scientist and inventor Hans Peter Luhn in a 1958 article that appeared in the IBM Journal (p. 314):

In this paper, business is a collection of activities carried on for whatever purpose, be it science, technology, commerce, industry, law, government, defense, et cetera. The communication facility serving the conduct of a business (in the broad sense) may be referred to as an intelligence system. The notion of intelligence is also defined here, in a more general sense, as "the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal."

Hans Peter Luhn died in 1964 at the age of 68.

Hans Peter Luhn (1896-1964)

Source: Luhn, H P (1958), A Business Intelligence System, IBM Journal, 2(4), 314-319.