Group Conversational Agents: A Review of Designs that Support and Shape Group Interaction

Yeo, S., Zhang, T., Bateman, S., Hsieh, G., Kim, Y., Perrault, S., Li, J., and Tang, A. (2026). Group Conversational Agents: A Review of Designs that Support and Shape Group Interaction. In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '26).

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.

Materials

BibTeX

@inproceedings{yeo2026group,
  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.},
  note = {In press. Co-first authors: ShunYi Yeo and Tianyi Zhang},
  type = {conference},
  publisher = {ACM},
  year = {2026},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '26)},
  title = {Group Conversational Agents: A Review of Designs that Support and Shape Group Interaction},
  author = {Yeo, ShunYi and Zhang, Tianyi and Bateman, Scott and Hsieh, Gary and Kim, Young-Ho and Perrault, Simon Tangi and Li, Jiannan and Tang, Anthony},
}