COLA: A Scalable Multi-Agent Framework For Windows UI Task Automation
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → GUI and mobile agents
Abstract (arXiv)
With the rapid advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs), an increasing number of studies have leveraged LLMs as the cognitive core of agents to address complex task decision-making challenges. Specially, recent research has demonstrated the potential of LLM-based agents on automating Windows GUI operations. However, existing methodologies exhibit two critical challenges: (1) static agent architectures fail to dynamically adapt to the heterogeneous requirements of OS-level tasks, leading to inadequate scenario generalization;(2) the agent workflows lack fault tolerance mechanism, necessitating complete process re-execution for UI agent decision error. To address these limitations, we introduce textitCOLA, a collaborative multi-agent framework for automating Windows UI operations. In this framework, a scenario-aware agent Task Scheduler decomposes task requirements into atomic capability units, dynamically selects the optimal agent from a decision agent pool, effectively responds to the capability requirements of diverse scenarios. The decision agent pool supports plug-and-play expansion for enhanced flexibility. In addition, we design a memory unit equipped to all agents for their self-evolution. Furthermore, we develop an interactive backtracking mechanism that enables human to intervene to trigger state rollbacks for non-destructive process repair. Our experimental results on the GAIA benchmark demonstrates that the textitCOLA framework achieves state-of-the-art performance with an average score of 31.89%, significantly outperforming baseline approaches without web API integration. Ablation studies further validate the individual contributions of our dynamic scheduling. The code is available at https://github.com/Alokia/COLA-demo.
Key facts. Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in GUI and mobile agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 29 of its 39 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 12 Mar 2025.
Builds on
29 of 39 references.
Closest ancestors · 6
Same direction, newest first
- 2024Large Language Model-Brained GUI Agents: A Survey27 Nov
- 2024GUI Agents with Foundation Models: A Comprehensive Survey7 Nov
- 2024Mobile-Agent-v2: Mobile Device Operation Assistant with Effective Navigation via Multi-Agent Collaboration3 Jun
- 2024OS-Copilot: Towards Generalist Computer Agents with Self-Improvement12 Feb
- 2024ScreenAgent: A Vision Language Model-driven Computer Control Agent9 Feb
- 2024Mobile-Agent: Autonomous Multi-Modal Mobile Device Agent with Visual Perception29 Jan
Other references · 23
- 2023GPT-4 Technical Reportcited by 18,132
- 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,302
- 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behaviorcited by 3,500
- 2023Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Modelscited by 3,155
- 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,203
- 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,081
- 2023AutoGen: Enabling Next-Gen LLM Applications via Multi-Agent Conversationcited by 1,906
- 2023MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Frameworkcited by 1,761
- 2023CAMEL: Communicative Agents for "Mind" Exploration of Large Language Model Societycited by 1,348
- 2023GAIA: a benchmark for General AI Assistantscited by 1,084
- 2023Encouraging Divergent Thinking in Large Language Models through Multi-Agent Debatecited by 995
- 2023ChatDev: Communicative Agents for Software Developmentcited by 893
11 more
- 2024Large Language Model based Multi-Agents: A Survey of Progress and Challengescited by 752
- 2023ChatEval: Towards Better LLM-based Evaluators through Multi-Agent Debatecited by 724
- 2023Detecting and Preventing Hallucinations in Large Vision Language Modelscited by 254
- 2023S3: Social-network Simulation System with Large Language Model-Empowered Agentscited by 228
- 2023Playing repeated games with Large Language Modelscited by 213
- 2024UFO: A UI-Focused Agent for Windows OS Interactioncited by 147
- 2023GPT-4V in Wonderland: Large Multimodal Models for Zero-Shot Smartphone GUI Navigationcited by 137
- 2023Holistic Analysis of Hallucination in GPT-4V(ision): Bias and Interference Challengescited by 131
- 2024DynaSaur: Large Language Agents Beyond Predefined Actionscited by 30
- 2024Sibyl: Simple yet Effective Agent Framework for Complex Real-world Reasoningcited by 17
- 2024Chain-of-Discussion: A Multi-Model Framework for Complex Evidence-Based Question Answeringcited by 5
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 4; 2026: 5.
9 papers.
- 2025Memory in the Age of AI Agentscited by 285
- 2025ScaleCUA: Scaling Open-Source Computer Use Agents with Cross-Platform Datacited by 58
- 2026A Survey of Agentic Reasoning for Large Language Models: Towards Recursively Self-Improving and Collective Agentscited by 47
- 2026AndroTMem: From Interaction Trajectories to Anchored Memory in Long-Horizon GUI Agentscited by 10
- 2025Beyond Pipelines: A Survey of the Paradigm Shift toward Model-Native Agentic AIcited by 8
- 2025Co-EPG: A Framework for Co-Evolution of Planning and Grounding in Autonomous GUI Agentscited by 3
- 2026Planner Matters! An Efficient and Unbalanced Multi-agent Collaboration Framework for Long-horizon Planningcited by 3
- 2026Software Engineering for and with GUI Agentcited by 1
- 2026TVWorld: Foundations for Remote-Control TV Agentscited by 0
- 2026Software Engineering for and with GUI Agent10 Aug 2026
- 2026Planner Matters! An Efficient and Unbalanced Multi-agent Collaboration Framework for Long-horizon Planning4 May 2026
- 2026AndroTMem: From Interaction Trajectories to Anchored Memory in Long-Horizon GUI Agents19 Mar 2026
- 2026TVWorld: Foundations for Remote-Control TV Agents19 Jan 2026
- 2026A Survey of Agentic Reasoning for Large Language Models: Towards Recursively Self-Improving and Collective Agents18 Jan 2026
- 2025Memory in the Age of AI Agents15 Dec 2025
- 2025Co-EPG: A Framework for Co-Evolution of Planning and Grounding in Autonomous GUI Agents13 Nov 2025
- 2025Beyond Pipelines: A Survey of the Paradigm Shift toward Model-Native Agentic AI19 Oct 2025
- 2025ScaleCUA: Scaling Open-Source Computer Use Agents with Cross-Platform Data18 Sep 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2026WindowsWorld: A Process-Centric Benchmark of Autonomous GUI Agents in Professional Cross-Application Environments
- 2025UFO2: The Desktop AgentOS
- 2025MMBench-GUI: Hierarchical Multi-Platform Evaluation Framework for GUI Agents
- 2024Windows Agent Arena: Evaluating Multi-Modal OS Agents at Scale
- 2025PC-Agent: A Hierarchical Multi-Agent Collaboration Framework for Complex Task Automation on PC
- 2024Agent S: An Open Agentic Framework that Uses Computers Like a Human
- 2025API Agents vs. GUI Agents: Divergence and Convergence
- 2025A Survey on (M)LLM-Based GUI Agents