Overview

User modeling builds representations of people from interaction histories, queries, clicks, conversations, sensor streams, or learning outcomes so systems can predict needs and adapt recommendations, tutoring, and agents. Common approaches include sequential and graph encoders for behavioral data, latent-state and hierarchical persona models, retrieval-based or compact memory for language models, and synthetic-user simulation. Systems are evaluated on recommendation and next-action tasks, personalization benchmarks, and educational or conversational settings, with growing attention to temporal change, uncertainty, and evidence for inferred traits. A central open tension is whether these models genuinely capture individual users: synthetic personas and automatic judges can miss real preferences, while richer behavioral data raises privacy and over-inference risks.

Latest papers

CardsList

154 papers17 papers in the last four weeks, up 42% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. "What Are You Really Trying to Do?": Co-Creating Life Goals from Everyday Computer Use

    May 1, 2026Shardul Sapkota, Matthew Jörke, Zane Sabbagh +3User ModelingHuman-AI Co-Creation

  2. The Bandit's Blind Spot: The Critical Role of User State Representation in Recommender Systems

    Apr 29, 2026Pedro R. Pires, Gregorio F. Azevedo, Rafael T. Sereicikas +2User ModelingRecommender Systems

  3. Hierarchical Multi-Persona Induction from User Behavioral Logs: Learning Evidence-Grounded and Truthful Personas

    Apr 28, 2026Nayoung Choi, Haeyu Jeong, Changbong Kim +2Personality Modeling in Language ModelsUser Modeling

  4. A Survey on LLM-based Conversational User Simulation

    Apr 27, 2026Bo Ni, Leyao Wang, Yu Wang +27Human Behavior SimulationUser Modeling

  5. EgoSelf: From Memory to Personalized Egocentric Assistant

    Apr 21, 2026Yanshuo Wang, Yuan Xu, Xuesong Li +4Agent MemoryUser Modeling

  6. Assessing Capabilities of Large Language Models in Social Media Analytics: A Multi-task Quest

    Apr 21, 2026Ramtin Davoudi, Kartik Thakkar, Nazanin Donyapour +2Social Media AnalysisLLM Evaluation

  7. HORIZON: A Benchmark for In-the-wild User Behaviour Modeling

    Apr 19, 2026Arnav Goel, Pranjal A Chitale, Bhawna Paliwal +2Sequential RecommendationCross-Domain Recommendation

  8. CogEvolution: A Human-like Generative Educational Agent to Simulate Student's Cognitive Evolution

    Apr 16, 2026Wei Zhang, Yihang Cheng, Zhirong Ye +1Cognitive ModelingHuman Behavior Simulation

  9. MUSE: Multi-Domain Chinese User Simulation via Self-Evolving Profiles and Rubric-Guided Alignment

    Apr 15, 2026Zihao Liu, Hantao Zhou, Jiguo Li +5User SimulationLarge Language Model-Based Role-Play Simulation

  10. DeepTutor: Towards Agentic Personalized Tutoring

    Apr 10, 2026Bingxi Zhao, Jiahao Zhang, Xubin Ren +4LLM PersonalizationIntelligent Tutoring Systems

  11. Restoring Heterogeneity in LLM-based Social Simulation: An Audience Segmentation Approach

    Apr 8, 2026Xiaoyou Qin, Zhihong Li, Xiaoxiao ChengLarge Language Model-Based Social SimulationUser Modeling

  12. Dynamic Agentic AI Expert Profiler System Architecture for Multidomain Intelligence Modeling

    Apr 7, 2026Aisvarya Adeseye, Jouni Isoaho, Seppo Virtanen +1User ModelingAgentic AI

  13. Fatigue-Aware Learning to Defer via Constrained Optimisation

    Apr 1, 2026Zheng Zhang, Cuong C. Nguyen, David Rosewarne +2Learning to DeferHuman-in-the-Loop AI

  14. EngageTriBoost: Predictive Modeling of User Engagement in Digital Mental Health Intervention Using Explainable Machine Learning

    Mar 31, 2026Ha Na Cho, Daniel Eisenberg, Cheryl King +1User Modeling

  15. GISTBench: Evaluating LLM User Understanding via Evidence-Based Interest Verification

    Mar 31, 2026Iordanis Fostiropoulos, Muhammad Rafay Azhar, Abdalaziz Sawwan +8LLM EvaluationUser Modeling

  16. Real-World Challenges in Fake News Detection: Dealing with Posts by Cold Users

    Mar 30, 2026Sai Keerthana Karnam, Abhirup Kundu, Jashn Arora +2Fake News DetectionSocial Media Analysis

  17. SLOW: Strategic Logical-inference Open Workspace for Cognitive Adaptation in AI Tutoring

    Mar 30, 2026Yuang Wei, Ruijia Li, Bo JiangIntelligent Tutoring SystemsAI in Education

  18. GUIDE: A Benchmark for Understanding and Assisting Users in Open-Ended GUI Tasks

    Mar 26, 2026Saelyne Yang, Jaesang Yu, Yi-Hao Peng +4GUI AgentsAI Agent Benchmarks

  19. AdaMem: Adaptive User-Centric Memory for Long-Horizon Dialogue Agents

    Mar 17, 2026Shannan Yan, Jingchen Ni, Leqi Zheng +6LLM Agent MemoryLong-Term Conversational Memory

  20. Language Models Don't Know What You Want: Evaluating Personalization in Deep Research Needs Real Users

    Mar 17, 2026Nishant Balepur, Malachi Hamada, Varsha Kishore +7Deep Research AgentsLLM Personalization

  21. Can LLMs Model Incorrect Student Reasoning? A Case Study on Distractor Generation

    Mar 16, 2026Yanick Zengaffinen, Andreas Opedal, Donya Rooein +3LLM PromptingGenerative AI in Education

  22. SensorPersona: An LLM-Empowered System for Continual Persona Extraction from Longitudinal Mobile Sensor Streams

    Mar 15, 2026Bufang Yang, Lilin Xu, Yixuan Li +3User ModelingLLM Personalization

  23. Modeling Trial-and-Error Navigation With a Sequential Decision Model of Information Scent

    Mar 12, 2026Xiaofu Jin, Yunpeng Bai, Antti OulasvirtaUser ModelingCognitive Modeling

  24. Learning Next Action Predictors from Human-Computer Interaction

    Mar 6, 2026Omar Shaikh, Valentin Teutschbein, Kanishk Gandhi +8Human-Computer InteractionNext-Action Prediction

  25. Behind the Prompt: The Agent-User Problem in Information Retrieval

    Mar 4, 2026Saber Zerhoudi, Michael Granitzer, Dang Hai Dang +5User ModelingAgentic Retrieval

  26. Generative Agents Navigating Digital Libraries

    Feb 26, 2026Saber Zerhoudi, Michael GranitzerUser SimulationInformation Retrieval