Unraveling Jingle-Jangle Fallacies in Digital Assistant Technologies: A Comprehensive Systematic Review and Research Agenda

This systematic literature review delves into the rapidly evolving landscape of digital assistive technologies (DATs), focusing on the inconsistencies in their labeling and application across various fields. The review identifies three primary concepts—assistants, chatbots, and agents—each with distinct but overlapping functionalities. It highlights the proliferation of terms and the jingle-jangle fallacy, where different terms describe similar functionalities or the same terms apply to distinct features. The analysis reveals that assistants are versatile, managing diverse personal tasks, while chatbots specialize in customer service or e-commerce, and agents focus on organizational tasks. The review also addresses the impact of branded technologies like ChatGPT on the terminology landscape. The findings underscore the need for a standardized taxonomy to clarify differences and commonalities, fostering clearer communication and more effective collaboration across the DAT landscape. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of DATs, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in this rapidly evolving field.