{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]],"date-time":"2026-02-19T03:18:27Z","timestamp":1771471107961,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,16]],"date-time":"2025-04-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1744761600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Digit. Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Tobacco remains one of the leading global public health threats, causing over 8 million deaths worldwide each year. Existing tobacco cessation strategies must be complemented with innovative approaches to enhance their effectiveness. This paper is intended to review the state and success of chatbots and virtual assistants in the delivery of tobacco cessation counselling services. Comprehensive literature search was performed on various databases including PubMed, SCOPUS, EMBASE, COCHRANE Library, and ScienceDirect using relevant keywords concerning tobacco cessation as well as artificial intelligence. The review is limited to studies published between March 2015 and March 2024 examining only the role of chatbots and virtual assistants in smoking cessation. The analysis of 31 studies found that chatbots and virtual assistants deliver continuous support, personalized interaction, and increased accessibility, which collectively boost user engagement. Their anonymity from other means of online counselling has significantly increased the willingness of people who want to stop smoking. The development of information technology has led to the advent of AI-based chatbots and virtual assistants as a promising novel tool for the tobacco cessation process, providing personalized, adaptive, and scalable support to web-based users. Personalized approaches improve the chances of success in quitting smoking and represent a major advancement of cessation strategies.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fdgth.2025.1503227","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,16]],"date-time":"2025-04-16T05:25:41Z","timestamp":1744781141000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["The role of chatbots and virtual assistants in enhancing tobacco cessation counselling"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Deepika","family":"V","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Praveen S.","family":"Jodalli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Avinash","family":"B R","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","volume-title":"Healthier, Fairer, Safer: The Global Health Journey, 2007\u20132017","year":"2017"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"105833","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ypmed.2019.105833","article-title":"Burden of disease attributable to second-hand smoke exposure: a systematic review","volume":"129","author":"Carreras","year":"2019","journal-title":"Prev Med"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"276","DOI":"10.1016\/j.amepre.2016.09.036","article-title":"Cigarette smoking and mortality in adults aged 70 years and older: results from the NIH-AARP cohort","volume":"52","author":"Nash","year":"2017","journal-title":"Am J Prev Med"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e20251","DOI":"10.2196\/20251","article-title":"Engaging unmotivated smokers to move toward quitting: design of motivational interviewing\u2013based chatbot through iterative interactions","volume":"22","author":"Almusharraf","year":"2020","journal-title":"J Med Internet Res"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1186\/s12911-018-0723-6","article-title":"Effectiveness of a chat-bot for the adult population to quit smoking: protocol of a pragmatic clinical trial in primary care (Dejal@)","volume":"19","author":"Avila-Tomas","year":"2019","journal-title":"BMC Med Inform Decis Mak"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.47611\/jsr.v9i1.798","article-title":"Smoking cessation by electronic cigarettes and applied artificial intelligence","volume":"9","author":"Ma","year":"2020","journal-title":"J Stud Res"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2055207619880676","DOI":"10.1177\/2055207619880676","article-title":"Does the addition of a supportive chatbot promote user engagement with a smoking cessation app? 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