Research Trends in Virtual Assistants

An Integrated Scientometric and Topic Modeling Study (2014-2024)

Abstract

Virtual assistants have become integral to personal and professional spheres, demonstrating their utility in various domains such as e-commerce, social media, and administrative tasks. This study examines research trends and new themes in virtual assistant research from 2014 to 2024 using a scientometric technique in conjunction with Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). It analyses global publication trends, prominent authors, prolific sources, and important study subjects like artificial intelligence, conversational agents, and human-centered studies based on 8,079 Scopus-indexed papers. An annual publication growth rate of 33.87 % reflects rising interest in this domain. Four main themes emerged from topic modeling: healthcare applications, user-centric conversational AI, educational technology, and AI-driven information systems and chatbots. Terms like “chatgpt”, “education” and “patients” indicate a variety of applications, and the Inter-topic Distance Map and saliency-based analysis highlight theme similarities and contrasts. The report offers a thorough analysis of the changing field of virtual assistant research, providing insightful information for further investigation and advancement in this ever-evolving area.