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Avatars and embodied agents in information systems research: a systematic review and conceptual framework

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posted on 2025-05-09, 16:27 authored by Hussain M. Aljaroodi, Marc AdamMarc Adam, Raymond ChiongRaymond Chiong, Timm Teubner
Computerised graphical representations of human users and computer agents, known as avatars and embodied agents, have been extensively explored and investigated in Information Systems (IS) research and practice. Such digital representations can be employed in either 2D or 3D. In order to facilitate research on user and agent representations and their applications in IS, we conduct a systematic literature review and establish the current state of research on humans' perceptions and behaviours when interacting with avatars and embodied agents. Our findings are based on an analysis of 90 articles published in top outlets in the IS field. This review identifies 1) different types of avatar and embodied agent-mediated interactions with users, 2) current application domains of such representations, 3) their dimensionality, 4) affected psychological constructs, and 5) practical considerations for the design of such digital representations. Finally, we discuss limitations of current research and, based on these, directions for future work.

History

Journal title

Australasian Journal of Information Systems

Volume

23

Article number

1841

Publisher

Deakin Business School, Deakin University

Language

  • en, English

College/Research Centre

Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment

School

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Rights statement

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Non-Commercial and Attribution License which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and AJIS are credited. All other rights including granting permissions beyond those in the above license remain the property of the author(s).

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