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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Call For Papers: HICSS 59
(2026)-Mini-track on <b>Human-Like Conversational Agents: Chatbots, Digital
Humans, and Virtual Influencers <span></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">For <b><u>Internet of Work
and Play</u></b><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:11pt">Hawaii International
Conference on System Sciences</span></b><span style="font-size:11pt"><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 12pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">HICSS-59:
Jan 6th to 9th 2026| Maui, Hawaii<b><u><span></span></u></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><b><u><span style="font-size:11pt"><span><span style="text-decoration:none"> </span></span></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 12pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><b><u><span style="font-size:11pt">Call for Papers<span></span></span></u></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">This mini-track explores the
transformative role of AI-powered conversational agents (e.g., chatbots and
digital humans) in reshaping both professional and personal aspects of daily
life. As AI-driven interactions become more prevalent in workplaces, social
media, entertainment, and customer service, understanding their impact is
crucial. This mini-track delves into key topics such as trust formation,
emotional engagement, user adoption, and the ethical implications of
integrating human-like AI agents into digital spaces. It also examines how
these technologies influence human behavior, decision-making, and social
interactions, ultimately redefining the way we communicate, collaborate, and
engage within the digital environment in both work and life.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Recent studies underscore key
advancements in virtual influencers, emotional interactions with AI avatars,
and the implications of digital human realism on credibility and engagement. As
AI-powered digital humans become increasingly prevalent in marketing, social
media, customer service, and virtual environments, understanding their
psychological and behavioral effects is critical. This mini-track aims to
explore themes such as consumer trust in AI-driven personas, the persuasive
power of digital humans, ethical dilemmas in AI-generated content, and the role
of synthetic media in shaping social perceptions. Additionally, we seek to
examine the intersection of AI, human identity, and digital embodiment,
providing a platform for interdisciplinary discussions on the future of
AI-driven social interactions.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">We would like to position
this mini-track as a place for researchers and practitioners from diverse
backgrounds to share their research and ideas. There are a variety of important
issues and topics of importance, such as new technology and visual design advancements
to human-like conversational agents, the behavioral, emotional, and even
physical responses of the users while interacting with human-like
conversational agents, the underlying cognitive processes underlying the
interactions, the impact of human-like conversational agents on the firm level
or industry level, and ethical issues and societal considerations of the
application of human-like conversational agents. Research could be
wide-ranging, such as rich descriptive statistics, theories, emergent and
innovative topics, models and frameworks related to technologies and their
impact on marketing, case studies, methods, qualitative research, etc. The
topics include but are not limited to:<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in" type="square"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Exploration of virtual
influencers as emerging phenomena (i.e. credibility, virtues, Uncanny
Valley)<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Use of digital humans in
live-streaming, customer service, and chatbots for e-commerce.<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">AI-powered detection of
social behaviors (i.e. loneliness)<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">The role of realism and
machine learning performance in shaping trust<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Visualization technology
to advance human-like conversational agents<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Design factors with
creating human-like conversational agents<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Design of digital humans
by combining human and computer cognitive power<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Analysis of machine
learning, big data, data mining, and other underlying technologies and
algorithms of digital humans<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Impact of digital humans
on the individual level (decision-making, problem-solving, negotiation,
and creativity/innovation)<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Psychological and
emotional effects of interacting with realistic human-like conversational
agents <span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Biases in interacting
with human-like conversational agents<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">The use of human-like
conversational agents beyond individuals and its consequences in
organizations<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Case studies on industry
adoption of human-like conversational agents <span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Use and economic
implications of human-like conversational agents <span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Social impact and ethics
related to human-like conversational agents and their use<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Philosophical questions
surrounding the idea of ‘using’ human-like conversational agents<span></span></span></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:11pt">IMPORTANT DATES<span></span></span></b></p>
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<ul style="margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in" type="square"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">April 15: Paper
submission begins<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">June 15: Paper
submissions deadline<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">August 17: Notification
of Acceptance/Rejection<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">September 4: Deadline
for authors whose papers are conditionally accepted to submit a revised
manuscript<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">September 22: Deadline
for authors to submit final manuscript for publication<span></span></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">October 1: Deadline for
at least one author to register for the conference<span></span></span></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Conference Website: <a href="http://hicss.hawaii.edu/" style="color:rgb(70,120,134);text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">http://hicss.hawaii.edu/</a><br>
Author Guidelines: <a href="http://hicss.hawaii.edu/tracks-and-minitracks/authors/" style="color:rgb(70,120,134);text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">http://hicss.hawaii.edu/tracks-and-minitracks/authors/</a><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><b><u><span style="font-size:11pt">Mini-track Co-Chairs</span></u></b><span style="font-size:11pt"><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Lingyao (Ivy) Yuan<br>
Department of Information System and Business Analytics<br>
Iowa State University<br>
<a href="mailto:lyuan@iastate.edu" style="color:rgb(70,120,134);text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">lyuan@iastate.edu</a><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Mike Seymour<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Discipline of Business
Information Systems<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">The University of Sydney
Business School<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><a href="mailto:mike.seymour@sydney.edu.au" style="color:rgb(70,120,134);text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">mike.seymour@sydney.edu.au</a><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">A. Benedikt Brendel<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Department of Operations and
Decision Technologies (ODT)<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Virtual Advanced Business
Technologies Department (ABT)<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Kelley School of Business,
Indiana University<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Email: <a href="mailto:alfbrend@iu.edu" style="color:rgb(70,120,134);text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">alfbrend@iu.edu</a><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span> </span></span></p>
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