Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to announce that the minitrack "AI Ecosystems: Agents, Assistants, and Platforms" will again be part of the Internet for Work and Play Track at HICSS in January 2027. Since 2021, this minitrack has attracted leading research on AI assistants, and last year a paper from this minitrack has been awarded the Best Track Paper Award. If you are working on topics related to AI ecosystems we cordially invite you to submit your paper until June 15, 2026.

MINITRACK OVERVIEW
AI ecosystems are rapidly transforming how individuals and organizations work, interact, and create value. In particular, Agentic AI systems — including assistants, autonomous agents, and multi-sided platforms — are increasingly operating alongside and on behalf of humans, raising critical questions about governance, ethics, economic coordination, and societal impact. The topics of this minitrack comprise (but are not limited to):
- AI Agent and Assistant Networks: multi-agent collaboration, autonomous reasoning, agent communication protocols (e.g., MCP, A2A), mechanism design, and trust in multi-agent systems
- Platform Architectures and Ecosystem Dynamics: platform governance, multi-sided markets, network effects, cross-platform integration, and strategic positioning in AI ecosystems
- Ethics, Regulation, and Responsible AI: value alignment, algorithmic fairness, AI in political processes, regulatory frameworks
- Democratic and Societal Impact: AI's effects on democratic discourse, labor markets, digital inclusion, and environmental sustainability
- Applications and Methods: domain-specific AI implementations, generative AI, graph neural networks, longitudinal studies, and novel theoretical frameworks

FAST TRACK TO ELECTRONIC MARKETS
As in previous years, authors of selected papers will be invited to submit a revised and extended version of their conference paper to the Electronic Markets journal (www.electronicmarkets.org) after the conference.

MINITRACK CHAIRS
Rainer Alt, Leipzig University (rainer.alt@uni-leipzig.de)
Rainer Schmidt, Munich University of Applied Sciences (rainer.schmidt@hm.edu)
Alfred Zimmermann, Reutlingen University (alfred.zimmermann@reutlingen-university.de)

We look forward to receiving your submissions and to welcoming you to HICSS-60 in 2027. Please feel free to forward this announcement to colleagues and networks who may be interested.
Kind regards,
Rainer Alt, Rainer Schmidt, and Alfred Zimmermann Minitrack Chairs – AI Ecosystems: Agents, Assistants, and Platforms HICSS-60, 2027