Large Language Model-Based Recommendation

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Overview

The field studies how language models can use item descriptions, interaction histories, and conversational feedback to predict and explain what people may want. Common approaches include instruction-tuned or reinforcement-trained recommenders, retrieval-augmented generation, semantic item IDs, and hybrids that combine language representations with collaborative filtering or graph signals. Work spans sequential and conversational recommendation, cold-start retrieval, and large-scale search and feeds, with distillation and offline feature generation used to reduce serving costs. A central tension is that semantic reasoning and fluent explanations do not guarantee accurate, grounded recommendations: candidate retrieval, user-data alignment, bias, safety, and latency remain important challenges.

Latest papers

CardsList

213 papers18 papers in the last four weeks, down 18% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. Deploying Semantic ID-based Generative Retrieval for Large-Scale Podcast Discovery at Spotify

    Mar 18, 2026Edoardo D'Amico, Marco De Nadai, Praveen Chandar +41Generative RecommendationLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

  2. A Unified Language Model for Large Scale Search, Recommendation, and Reasoning

    Mar 18, 2026Marco De Nadai, Edoardo D'Amico, Max Lefarov +18Large Language Model-Based RecommendationLLM Grounding

    Spotify Denmark, Spain, Germany, France, United States, United Kingdom

  3. Is Your LLM-as-a-Recommender Agent Trustable? LLMs' Recommendation is Easily Hacked by Biases (Preferences)

    Mar 18, 2026Zichen Tang, Zirui Zhang, Qian Wang +3Large Language Model-Based RecommendationLLM Agent Reliability

    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology · National University of Singapore · The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)

  4. ReFORM: Review-aggregated Profile Generation via LLM with Multi-Factor Attention for Restaurant Recommendation

    Mar 17, 2026Moonsoo Park, Seulbeen Je, Donghyeon ParkRecommender SystemsLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    University of Southern California, USA · Sejong University, South Korea

  5. Shopping Companion: Benchmarking and Training LLM Agents for Long-Horizon Preference-Grounded E-Commerce Tasks

    Mar 16, 2026Zijian Yu, Kejun Xiao, Huaipeng Zhao +2LLM Agent TrainingAI Agent Benchmarks

    Alibaba International Digital Commercial Group

  6. A Comparative Study of Demonstration Selection for Practical Large Language Models-based Next POI Prediction

    Mar 16, 2026Ryo Nishida, Masayuki Kawarada, Tatsuya Ishigaki +2In-Context LearningLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan

  7. Iterative Semantic Reasoning from Individual to Group Interests for Generative Recommendation with LLMs

    Mar 14, 2026Xiaofei Zhu, Jinfei Chen, Feiyang Yuan +1Recommender SystemsGenerative Recommendation

    Chongqing University of Technology, College of Computer Science and Engineering, Chongqing, China · Chongqing Normal University, College of Computer and Information Science, Chongqing, China

  8. R3-REC: Reasoning-Driven Recommendation via Retrieval-Augmented LLMs over Multi-Granular Interest Signals

    Mar 14, 2026Yuchen Miao, Mingxuan Cui, Yitong Zhu +2Recommender SystemsSequential Recommendation

    Sydney Smart Technology College, Northeastern University, China

  9. LLM Routing as Reasoning: A MaxSAT View

    Mar 13, 2026Son Nguyen, Xinyuan Liu, Ransalu SenanayakeLLM RoutingLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    Arizona State University

  10. Taming the Long Tail: Efficient Item-wise Sharpness-Aware Minimization for LLM-based Recommender Systems

    Mar 13, 2026Jiaming Zhang, Yuyuan Li, Xiaohua Feng +4Long-Tail RecommendationRecommender Systems

    Zhejiang University Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China · Hangzhou Dianzi University Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China · Ant Group Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

  11. FlexRec: Adapting LLM-based Recommenders for Flexible Needs via Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 12, 2026Yijun Pan, Weikang Qiu, Qiyao Ma +4RL for RecommendationRecommender Systems

    Yale University · University of California, Davis · Snap Inc.

  12. UtilityMax Prompting: A Formal Framework for Multi-Objective Large Language Model Tasks

    Mar 12, 2026Ofir MaromLLM PromptingLLM Decision-Making

    Independent Researcher

  13. LLMGreenRec: LLM-Based Multi-Agent Recommender System for Sustainable E-Commerce

    Mar 11, 2026Hao N. Nguyen, Hieu M. Nguyen, Son Van Nguyen +1Recommender SystemsLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    Faculty of Computer Science, PHENIKAA University, Hanoi, Vietnam · Faculty of Interdisciplinary Digital Technology, PHENIKAA University, Hanoi, Vietnam · Corresponding author at PHENIKAA University, Hanoi, Vietnam

  14. SafeCRS: Personalized Safety Alignment for LLM-Based Conversational Recommender Systems

    Mar 3, 2026Haochang Hao, Yifan Xu, Xinzhuo Li +2Recommender SystemsLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, IL, USA · University of Notre Dame South Bend, IN, USA · Amazon Santa Clara, CA, USA

  15. Beyond Factual Correctness: Mitigating Preference-Inconsistent Explanations in Explainable Recommendation

    Mar 3, 2026Chengkai Wang, Baisong LiuExplainable RecommendationLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    Ningbo University, Ningbo, China

  16. AlphaFree: Recommendation Free from Users, IDs, and GNNs

    Mar 3, 2026Minseo Jeon, Junwoo Jung, Daewon Gwak +1Recommender SystemsLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    Soongsil University Seoul, Republic of Korea

  17. IDProxy: CTR Prediction with Multimodal LLMs for Cold-Start Recommendation at Xiaohongshu

    Mar 2, 2026Yubin Zhang, Haiming Xu, Guillaume Salha-Galvan +6Cold-Start RecommendationMultimodal Embedding

    Xiaohongshu Inc. Shanghai, China · Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China · Fudan University Shanghai, China

  18. RAIE: Region-Aware Incremental Preference Editing with LoRA for LLM-based Recommendation

    Feb 28, 2026Jin Zeng, Yupeng Qi, Hui Li +4Recommender SystemsLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    School of Cyber Science and Technology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China · Department of Computer Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China · Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, Shenzhen MSU-BIT University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China +2

  19. SIGMA: A Semantic-Grounded Instruction-Driven Generative Multi-Task Recommender at AliExpress

    Feb 26, 2026Yang Yu, Lei Kou, Huaikuan Yi +6Recommender SystemsGenerative Recommendation

    Alibaba International Digital Commercial Group, Hangzhou, China

  20. Vectorizing the Trie: Efficient Constrained Decoding for LLM-based Generative Retrieval on Accelerators

    Feb 26, 2026Zhengyang Su, Isay Katsman, Yueqi Wang +10Constrained DecodingGenerative Retrieval

    Google Mountain View, CA, USA · Yale University New Haven, CT, USA

  21. Federated Personal Knowledge Graph Completion with Lightweight Large Language Models for Personalized Recommendations

    Feb 25, 2026Fernando Spadea, Oshani SeneviratneRecommender SystemsLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA

  22. Offline Reasoning for Efficient Recommendation: LLM-Empowered Persona-Profiled Item Indexing

    Feb 25, 2026Deogyong Kim, Junseong Lee, Jeongeun Lee +4Recommender SystemsLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea · NAVER, Seongnam, South Korea

  23. From Logs to Language: Learning Optimal Verbalization for LLM-Based Recommendation at Industry Scale

    Feb 24, 2026Yucheng Shi, Ying Li, Yu Wang +8Large Language Model-Based RecommendationSequential Recommendation

    University of Georgia · Netflix · Capital One +1

  24. DeepInterestGR: Mining Deep Multi-Interest Using Multi-Modal LLMs for Generative Recommendation

    Feb 21, 2026Yangchen Zeng, Guangyuan Dong, Zhenyu Yu +3Recommender SystemsGenerative Recommendation

    Southeast University

  25. Improving LLM-based Recommendation with Self-Hard Negatives from Intermediate Layers

    Feb 19, 2026Bingqian Li, Bowen Zheng, Xiaolei Wang +5Large Language Model-Based RecommendationLLM Fine-Tuning

    GSAI, Renmin University of China Beijing, China · Meituan Beijing, China

  26. Conv-FinRe: A Conversational and Longitudinal Benchmark for Utility-Grounded Financial Recommendation

    Feb 19, 2026Yan Wang, Yi Han, Lingfei Qian +11Recommender SystemsLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    The Fin AI, USA · Georgia Institute of Technology, USA · Columbia University, USA +5

  27. Learning User Interests via Reasoning and Distillation for Cross-Domain News Recommendation

    Feb 16, 2026Mengdan Zhu, Yufan Zhao, Tao Di +2Recommender SystemsUser Preference Modeling

    Microsoft · Emory University

  28. GR2: Generative Reasoning Re-ranker

    Feb 8, 2026Mingfu Liang, Yufei Li, Jay Xu +20RL for Language ModelsRL for Recommendation

    Meta AI

  29. Controlling Output Rankings in LLM-Based Search via Generative Engine Optimization

    Feb 3, 2026Haibo Jin, Huimin Zeng, Yifeng Luo +1Generative Engine OptimizationLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA

  30. LatentCRS: A Variational EM Framework for Bridging Semantics and Behavior in LLM-based Conversational Recommendation

    Mar 12, 2025Guanrong Li, Kuo Tian, Jinnan Qi +4Recommender SystemsLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    Nanjing University Nanjing, Jiangsu, China