# User-Like Bots for Cognitive Automation: A Survey

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.12154 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12154/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 66 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 Nov 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08708/) (2023)
- [Software Engineering for AI-Based Systems: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.01984/) (2021)
- [Engineering AI Systems: A Research Agenda](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.07522/) (2020)
- [Towards Cognitive Bots: Architectural Research Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17308/) (2023)
- [Explainable Software Bot Contributions: Case Study of Automated Bug Fixes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.02597/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Fundamentals of Building Autonomous LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.09244/) (2025)
- [Affordance Representation and Recognition for Autonomous Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.24459/) (2025)
- [A Pattern Language for Resilient Visual Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.28001/) (2026)
- [A Technical Taxonomy of LLM Agent Communication Protocols](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.19135/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Software bots have attracted increasing interest and popularity in both research and society. Their contributions span automation, digital twins, game characters with conscious-like behavior, and social media. However, there is still a lack of intelligent bots that can adapt to web environments' variability and dynamic nature. Unlike human users, they have difficulty understanding and exploiting the affordances across multiple virtual environments. Despite the hype, bots with human user-like cognition do not currently exist. Chatbots, for instance, lack situational awareness on the digital platforms where they operate, preventing them from enacting meaningful and autonomous intelligent behavior similar to human users. In this survey, we aim to explore the role of cognitive architectures in supporting efforts towards engineering software bots with advanced general intelligence. We discuss how cognitive architectures can contribute to creating intelligent software bots. Furthermore, we highlight key architectural recommendations for the future development of autonomous, user-like cognitive bots.