Publication Type

Conference Proceeding Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

6-2026

Abstract

Conversational agents that participate in or mediate group interaction introduce challenges that extend beyond supporting individual users, raising new questions about how agents participate in and influence groups. To characterise this emerging design space, we present a systematic review of 53 peer-reviewed studies on group conversational agents (GCAs). We analyse how GCAs intervene in group-level processes, including participation regulation, conflict mediation, task alignment, and execution support. Using concepts from group research as an analytic lens, we organise prior GCA work around recurring group interactional challenges (orientation, conflict, alignment, and execution), and examine the roles agents are designed to play in addressing these challenges. We find that GCAs are predominantly designed as short-term, role-bounded interventions targeting isolated challenges in bounded interactional contexts. We further identify recurring structural tensions in GCA design, including tradeoffs between visibility and discretion, proactivity and group autonomy, and agent authority and group ownership. Together, these findings clarify how current GCAs are positioned within group interaction, surface the implicit assumptions embedded in their designs, and outline open questions for future research on conversational agents as group-level interventions.

Keywords

multi-party, groups, teams, group conversational agents, multi-party interaction, group research, group dynamics, multi-partychatbot, human-agent interaction, human-AI interaction, review

Discipline

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Research Areas

Information Systems and Management

Areas of Excellence

Digital transformation

Publication

DIS '26: Proceedings of the 2026 Designing Interactive Systems Conference, Singapore, June 13-17

First Page

2765

Last Page

2779

ISBN

9798400725630

Identifier

10.1145/3800645.3812934

Publisher

ACM

City or Country

Singapore

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1145/3800645.3812934

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