Towards a Taxonomy for Digital Assistant Technologies: Addressing the Jingle-Jangle Fallacies

This study proposes a unified taxonomy for Digital Assistant Technologies (DATs) to resolve terminological inconsistencies and eliminate »Jingle-Jangle fallacies.« By employing a systematic taxonomy development method on 137 papers, the framework categorizes DATs across four meta-characteristics: AI technology, context, intelligence, and interaction. This taxonomy facilitates the clear differentiation of three primary DAT concepts: assistant, chatbot, and agent. By providing a structured framework, the study enhances conceptual clarity, fosters more focused research, and ensures better alignment of DATs.