# A Review of Artificial Intelligence Research in Peer-Reviewed Communication Journals
## 4 Results
In response to RQ1a, which asks what type of AI technologies were mainly used, this study found the most examined AI technologies among these peer-reviewed journal articles to be informational chatbots [20; 45], deepfakes [46; 47], social bots [16; 48], and algorithms [49; 50]. This study, in reviewing the existing research, also examined the various features of AI mentioned in peer-reviewed journal articles. It identified several key functions: simulating human intelligence, enhancing human communication, facilitating information management, and supporting creative content processes. For instance, AI technologies encompass computer programs or systems that emulate human intelligence, including home-based voice control devices [51] and computer-generated individuals with human traits [52]. These autonomous systems serve the needs of human communication. They can respond to users' demands synchronically, engage in human interaction, and even learn users' behavior preferences [53]. These technologies can also collect, analyze, interpret, and disseminate information to support organizational decision-making and strategies in the areas of advertising, public relations, and journalism. For example, they can provide customized news feeds on commonly used social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter as well as news aggregators like Google News and Apple News, improve newsroom efficiency, and enhance the accuracy of news reporting [49]. These technologies can support different stages and types of creative processes in advertising and content creation. For example, they can serve as intelligent personal assistants for brand recommendations based on users' characteristics and preferences [54]. These technologies can also perform tasks including writing data-driven stories, organizing and updating media lists, aiding in crisis management, converting and transcribing audio into text, following and predicting media trends, and monitoring and managing social media [55]. In response to RQ2, this study found that only six articles provided a comprehensive definition of AI in the communication field. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [19] addressed the term AI as \"polysemous, encompassing efforts to understand human intelligence by recreating a mind within a machine and to develop technologies that perform tasks associated with  
Figure 1: The number of articles about AI in peer-reviewed journals in the communication field between 2006 and 2022.  
some level of human intelligence\" (p. 72). [PERSON] and [PERSON] [56] defined AI in the public relations context as \"technologies showing humanoid cognitive abilities and performing humanoid functions in undertaking public relations activities, independently or together with public relations practitioners\" (p. 735). [PERSON] et al. [57] referred to AI in advertising practice and used the definition of \"the activity devoted to making machines intelligent\" such that it \"enables an entity to function appropriately and with foresight in its environment\" [58] (p. 13). [PERSON] et al. [59] referred to AI as not a single technology but rather a loosely defined set of algorithms, techniques, and technologies that offer a powerful \"mathematical method for prediction\" (p. 23) from a journalistic perspective. [PERSON] et al. [60] defined AI as \"computer systems that can make predictions, recommendations, or decisions and select information autonomously using algorithms and has been considered as one of the promising technological breakthroughs of the twenty-first century\" (p. 2). [PERSON] et al. [61] defined AI as \"a computer program or system that mimics human thought--[and] has been portrayed in media messages as both a tool of social progress and a Pandora's box filled with dangers\" (p. 389). RQ3 asked about the authorial, topical, theoretical, and methodological status of AI research in the communication field in published articles in peer-reviewed journals included in this study.