The rapid integration of large language model-based agents into recommender systems has driven a shift from static, ranking-based pipelines toward autonomous and interactive systems that can reason, plan, and act. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of this emerging landscape by introducing a unified taxonomy grounded in the level of autonomy and three core paradigms of agentic recommender systems: agent-assisted recommendation, agent-as-recommender, and agent-as-user-simulator.
Although large language models (LLMs) have recently gained traction in recommender systems due to their strong reasoning capabilities and extensive world knowledge, previous LLM-based agents suffer from hallucination and context-length limitations, and thus are not suitable for full-ranking recommendation tasks. To circumvent these limitations through architectural design rather than modifying the LLM itself, we propose an agent-based recommendation framework, memory-based $\textbf{P}$ersonalized $\textbf{R}$ecommendation $\textbf{T}$ool learning via autonomous language $\textbf{A}$gents (PRTA), in which an LLM acts as a central planner interacting with multiple recommendation models as tools.
arXiv:2607. 19739v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Although large language models (LLMs) have recently gained traction in recommender systems due to their strong reasoning capabilities and extensive world knowledge, previous LLM-based agents suffer from hallucination and context-length limitations, and thus are not suitable for full-ranking recommendation tasks.
By Mingdai Yang, Zhiwei Liu, Weizhi Zhang, Yibo Wang, Hao Peng, Philip Yu
arXiv:2607. 20482v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Recent advances in large language models have enabled web agents to autonomously execute complex tasks.
By Seungbin Yang, Chaewoon Ki, Dohyun Lee, Jaegul Choo, ChaeHun Park
arXiv:2511. 22130v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: To navigate ever-shifting real-world environments, agents must grapple with incomplete knowledge and adapt their strategies through experience.
By Gilbert Yang, Yaqin Chen, Thomson Yen, Hongseok Namkoong
arXiv:2607. 03162v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: LLM-powered agents struggle with personalization when users issue raw, underspecified queries.
By Garry Yang, Zizhe Chen, Xinru Chen, Yongqiang Chen, Jianxiang Wang, Deyu Zou, Linyi Ding, Jialiang Wu, Yunzhong He, Yu Gong, James Cheng, Huaixiao Tou
arXiv:2608. 16919v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Recent advances in large language models and agent-based recommendation frameworks have introduced new opportunities for more flexible and context-aware recommendation.
By Weijun Gao, Jinyang Dong, Chuanru Ren, Hengxiao Li
arXiv:2605. 12887v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Web-enabled LLM agents are changing how online information influences search outcomes.
By Hengwei Ye, Jiasheng Mao, Zhenhan Guan, Zheng Tian
arXiv:2607. 00010v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Conversational recommender systems (CRSs) are a core component of next-generation intelligent recommender systems because they enable users to actively elicit preferences, clarify intentions, and adapt recommendations in real time.
By Nipun B Nair, Tongtong Wu, Weiqing Wang
arXiv:2603. 21613v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Recommender agents built on Large Language Models offer a promising paradigm for personalized recommendation.
By Tianyi Li, Zixuan Wang, Guidong Lei, Xiaodong Li, Hui Li
arXiv:2606. 10357v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Cross-domain recommendation is a core problem in content-to-e-commerce platforms.
By Zhuohang Jiang, Yuxin Chen, Shijie Wang, Haohao Qu, Zhou Jindong, Wenqi Fan, Li Qing, Dongxu Liang, Jun Wang
arXiv:2606. 12871v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Search Agents (SAs) typically leverage large language models (LLMs) to support complex information-seeking tasks by autonomously exploring web sources and synthesizing information into comprehensive responses.
By Jingxuan Han, Wei Liu, Mingyang Zhu, Youpeng Wang, Ziwen Wang, Lin Qiu, Xuezhi Cao, Xunliang Cai, Zheren Fu, Licheng Zhang, Zhendong Mao