# LLM-Augmented Agent-Based Modelling for Social Simulations: Challenges and Opportunities

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.06700 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.06700/

## Key facts

- Cited by 27 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Social simulation and multi-agent debate, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 8 of its 47 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 8 May 2024.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Social simulation and multi-agent debate](https://mlsanity.com/agents/social-simulation-and-multi-agent-debate/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [Out of One, Many: Using Language Models to Simulate Human Samples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.06899/) (2022)
- [Role-Play with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16367/) (2023)
- [Language Models as Agent Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.01681/) (2022)
- [Structured information extraction from complex scientific text with fine-tuned large language models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.05238/) (2022)
- [Taxonomy, Semantic Data Schema, and Schema Alignment for Open Data in Urban Building Energy Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.08535/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [Richelieu: Self-Evolving LLM-Based Agents for AI Diplomacy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.06813/) (2024)
- [EmoAgent: Assessing and Safeguarding Human-AI Interaction for Mental Health Safety](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.09689/) (2025)
- [RecoWorld: Building Simulated Environments for Agentic Recommender Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.10397/) (2025)
- [Very Large-Scale Multi-Agent Simulation in AgentScope](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17789/) (2024)
- [COMMA: A Communicative Multimodal Multi-Agent Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.07553/) (2024)
- [From the Fluency Fallacy to the Micro-to-Macro Validity Gap: Opportunities and Pitfalls of LLMs in Social Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19364/) (2025)
- [Position: Collaborative Agentic AI Needs Interoperability Across Ecosystems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21550/) (2025)
- [How Social is It? A Benchmark for LLMs' Capabilities in Multi-user Multi-turn Social Agent Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.04628/) (2025)
- [Towards an LLM-powered Social Digital Twinning Platform](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.10681/) (2025)
- [Simulation Agent: A Framework for Integrating Simulation and Large Language Models for Enhanced Decision-Making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13761/) (2025)
- [Large Language Models for Agent-Based Modelling: Current and possible uses across the modelling cycle](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.05723/) (2025)
- [Games Agents Play: Towards Transactional Analysis in LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21354/) (2025)
- [WhatIf: Interactive Exploration of LLM-Powered Social Simulations for Policy Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.17615/) (2026)
- [Generative Organizational Behavior Simulation using Large Language Model based Autonomous Agents: A Holacracy Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.11826/) (2024)
- [A closer look at how large language models trust humans: patterns and biases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.15801/) (2025)
- [Applying Psychometrics to Large Language Model Simulated Populations: Recreating the HEXACO Personality Inventory Experiment with Generative Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.00742/) (2025)
- [TACLA: An LLM-Based Multi-Agent Tool for Transactional Analysis Training in Education](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.17913/) (2025)
- [Item-Mean Surrogates: Why Richer Persona Data Fail to Improve LLMs as Human Surrogates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.29455/) (2026)
- [Socially Interactive Agents for Preserving and Transferring Tacit Knowledge in Organizations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.19942/) (2025)
- [A Simulation-Based Method for Testing Collaborative Learning Scaffolds Using LLM-Based Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.11161/) (2026)
- [Collective Opinion Dynamics in Structured LLM Populations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.11312/) (2026)
- [CAMO: An Agentic Framework for Automated Causal Discovery from Micro Behaviors to Macro Emergence in LLM Agent Simulations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.14691/) (2026)
- [OS-SPEAR: A Toolkit for the Safety, Performance,Efficiency, and Robustness Analysis of OS Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.24348/) (2026)
- [LLM-enabled Social Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.02335/) (2026)
- [SocialFiVis: A Visual Analytics Sandbox for LLM-Grounded Multi-Agent Simulation in Social Finance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.08497/) (2026)
- [LLM-Assisted Behavioural and Scenario Augmentation for Agent-Based Energy Adoption Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.04866/) (2026)
- [Do Personality-Tuned LLMs Make Better Social Agents?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.21857/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

As large language models (LLMs) continue to make significant strides, their better integration into agent-based simulations offers a transformational potential for understanding complex social systems. However, such integration is not trivial and poses numerous challenges. Based on this observation, in this paper, we explore architectures and methods to systematically develop LLM-augmented social simulations and discuss potential research directions in this field. We conclude that integrating LLMs with agent-based simulations offers a powerful toolset for researchers and scientists, allowing for more nuanced, realistic, and comprehensive models of complex systems and human behaviours.