Survey on Applications of Multi-Armed and Contextual Bandits

Abstract

In recent years, the multi-armed bandit (MAB) framework has attracted a lot of attention in various applications, from recommender systems and information retrieval to healthcare and finance. This success is due to its stellar performance combined with attractive properties, such as learning from less feedback. The multiarmed bandit field is currently experiencing a renaissance, as novel problem settings and algorithms motivated by various practical applications are being introduced, building on top of the classical bandit problem. This article aims to provide a comprehensive review of top recent developments in multiple real-life applications of the multi-armed bandit. Specifically, we introduce a taxonomy of common MAB-based applications and summarize the state-of-the-art for each of those domains. Furthermore, we identify important current trends and provide new perspectives pertaining to the future of this burgeoning field.