Over the decades he has researched and developed emerging fields of computer science from compilers, programming languages, and system architecture[4] to artificial intelligence and knowledge representation.
With this company he was developing data-mining and database technology, more specifically high-level "ontologies" for artificial intelligence and automated natural language understanding.
Sowa's research interests since the 1970s were in the field of artificial intelligence, expert systems and database query linked to natural languages.
[4] In his work he combines ideas from numerous disciplines and eras modern and ancient, for example, applying ideas from Aristotle, the medieval scholastics to Alfred North Whitehead and including database schema theory, and incorporating the model of analogy of Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyyah in his works.
He introduced the concept in the 1976 article "Conceptual graphs for a data base interface" in the IBM Journal of Research and Development.