Call for papers

The User, Plural: Heterogeneity and Interaction in User Simulation examines when, how, and for what purposes simulated users can serve as valid proxies for real users. Its central concerns are interactional fidelity, user heterogeneity, and evidence appropriate to a simulator’s intended use.

The scope covers user simulation for developing, evaluating, and studying AI systems, including offline uses and interactive settings where user and system behaviors evolve together through text, speech, multimodal interfaces, or tools.

• State and strategy modeling; multi-turn and multimodal simulation.
• Multilingual, multidialectal, culturally grounded, low-resource, accessibility-aware, and intersectional users.
• Rare-behavior stress testing and human–simulator gaps.
• Sim-to-real transfer and controllable representations.
• Datasets, metrics, and responsible deployment.

These topics span the four research directions: Capabilities and Uses; Human–Simulator Gaps; Evaluation and Validation; and Responsible and Real-World Use.

Scope boundary: multi-agent work is in scope when its primary object is user behavior or user-facing AI. Macro-scale social simulation is outside the workshop’s scope.

We welcome long and short papers through direct submission or ACL Rolling Review (ARR) commitment via OpenReview, following ACL/ARR requirements. Both archival and non-archival submissions are accepted. Presentation and attendance will be hybrid, with in-person and online participation. Direct submissions are due January 20, 2027; pre-reviewed ARR commitments are due February 16, 2027. The submission URL is TBD.

See submission information and important dates. For questions, contact theuserplural@gmail.com.