Fusion and Alignment Enhancement with Large Language Models for Tail-item Sequential Recommendation
Abstract
Sequential Recommendation (SR) learns user preferences from their historical interaction sequences and provides personalized suggestions. In real-world scenarios, most items exhibit sparse interactions, known as the tail-item problem. This issue limits the model's ability to accurately capture item transition patterns. To tackle this, large language models (LLMs) offer a promising solution by capturing semantic relationships between items. Despite previous efforts to leverage LLM-derived embeddings for enriching tail items, they still face the following limitations: 1) They struggle to effectively fuse collaborative signals with semantic knowledge, leading to suboptimal item embedding quality. 2) Existing methods overlook the structural inconsistency between the ID and LLM embedding spaces, causing conflicting signals that degrade recommendation accuracy. In this work, we propose a Fusion and Alignment Enhancement framework with LLMs for Tail-item Sequential Recommendation (FAERec), which improves item representations by generating coherently-fused and structurally consistent embeddings. For the information fusion challenge, we design an adaptive gating mechanism that dynamically fuses ID and LLM embeddings. Then, we propose a dual-level alignment approach to mitigate structural inconsistency. The item-level alignment establishes correspondences between ID and LLM embeddings of the same item through contrastive learning, while the feature-level alignment constrains the correlation patterns between corresponding dimensions across the two embedding spaces. Furthermore, the weights of the two alignments are adjusted by a curriculum learning scheduler to avoid premature optimization of the complex feature-level objective. Extensive experiments across three widely used datasets with multiple representative SR backbones demonstrate the effectiveness and generalizability of our framework. The codes are provided at https://github.com/ZhifuWei/FAERec.
Assigned reviewers
| # | Reviewer | Match | Why (closest evidence publications in the taxonomy) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bowen Zheng 0005 | 64 | 75 Enhancing Sequential Recommender with Large Language Models for Joint Video and Comment Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 64 Adapting Large Language Models by Integrating Collaborative Semantics for Recommendation (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 54 Reciprocal Sequential Recommendation (2023) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 2 | Xiao Zhang 0034 | 55 | 62 MoRE: A Mixture of Reflectors Framework for Large Language Model-Based Sequential Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 60 Benefit from Rich: Tackling Search Interaction Sparsity in Search Enhanced Recommendation (2025) Recommendation with Search and Ranking 55 Retrieval Augmented Generation with Collaborative Filtering for Personalized Text Generation (2025) Personalized and Conversational RAG |
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| 3 | Yang Song 0008 | 53 | 70 Large Language Models Enhanced Collaborative Filtering (2024) LLM-Enhanced Collaborative Filtering 55 Learning and Optimization of Implicit Negative Feedback for Industrial Short-video Recommender System (2023) Multi-Behavior and Multi-Interest Sequential Recommendation 55 Retrieval Augmented Generation with Collaborative Filtering for Personalized Text Generation (2025) Personalized and Conversational RAG |
Area chair
| Area chair | Match | |
|---|---|---|
| Maolin Wang 0001 | 64 |
Area-chair candidates (6)
| Maolin Wang 0001 assigned | 64 | 15 papers | |
| Kun Gai | 53 | 5 papers | |
| Xin Xin 0003 COI: co-author | 52 | 10 papers | |
| Yanan Niu | 51 | 15 papers | |
| Pengyue Jia | 51 | 10 papers | |
| Leyu Lin | 50 | 15 papers |
Candidates from the panel ranked by match score
| # | Reviewer | Match | Load | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Bowen Zheng 0005 assigned | 64 | 3 | 75 Enhancing Sequential Recommender with Large Language Models for Joint Video and Comment Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 64 Adapting Large Language Models by Integrating Collaborative Semantics for Recommendation (2024) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 3 | Seongmin Park 0002 | 57 | 3 | 63 LLM-Enhanced Linear Autoencoders for Recommendation (2025) Collaborative-Semantic Representation Alignment 57 Temporal Linear Item-Item Model for Sequential Recommendation (2025) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation |
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| 4 | Jizhi Zhang | 57 | 3 | 75 Large Language Model Can Interpret Latent Space of Sequential Recommender (2026) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 64 A Bi-Step Grounding Paradigm for Large Language Models in Recommendation Systems (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 5 | Zhengyi Yang 0007 | 56 | 3 | 64 Large Language Model Can Interpret Latent Space of Sequential Recommender (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization 62 LLaRA: Large Language-Recommendation Assistant (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 6 | Bo Peng 0009 | 56 | 3 | 54 M2: Mixed Models With Preferences, Popularities and Transitions for Next-Basket Recommendation (2023) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation 54 HAM: Hybrid Associations Models for Sequential Recommendation (Extended abstract) (2023) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 7 | Jianling Wang | 56 | 3 | 64 LLMs for User Interest Exploration in Large-scale Recommendation Systems (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 54 A Hierarchical Self-Attentive Model for Recommending User-Generated Item Lists (2019) Efficient and Long-Sequence Sequential Recommendation |
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| 8 | Fei Sun 0001 | 56 | 3 | 55 LoRec: Combating Poisons with Large Language Model for Robust Sequential Recommendation (2024) Robustness to Noise and Distribution Shift 54 XDM: Improving Sequential Deep Matching with Unclicked User Behaviors for Recommender System (2022) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 9 | Jiancan Wu | 55 | 3 | 96 LLaRA: Large Language-Recommendation Assistant (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 96 Large Language Model Can Interpret Latent Space of Sequential Recommender (2026) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 10 | Xiao Zhang 0034 assigned | 55 | 3 | 62 MoRE: A Mixture of Reflectors Framework for Large Language Model-Based Sequential Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 60 Benefit from Rich: Tackling Search Interaction Sparsity in Search Enhanced Recommendation (2025) Recommendation with Search and Ranking |
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| 11 | Bo Chen 0023 | 55 | 3 | 82 Full-Stack Optimized Large Language Models for Lifelong Sequential Behavior Comprehension in Recommendation (2026) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 76 ReLLa: Retrieval-enhanced Large Language Models for Lifelong Sequential Behavior Comprehension in Recommendation (2024) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation |
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| 12 | Yang Zhang 0072 | 54 | 3 | 56 Text-like Encoding of Collaborative Information in Large Language Models for Recommendation (2024) Collaborative-Semantic Representation Alignment 56 CoLLM: Integrating Collaborative Embeddings Into Large Language Models for Recommendation (2025) Collaborative-Semantic Representation Alignment |
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| 13 | Junwei Pan COI: co-author | 54 | 3 | 75 Pre-train, Align, and Disentangle: Empowering Sequential Recommendation with Large Language Models (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 68 Cross-Scale Collaboration between LLMs and Lightweight Sequential Recommenders with Domain-Specific Latent Reasoning (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 14 | Qiang Luo 0004 | 53 | 3 | 54 FIM: Frequency-Aware Multi-View Interest Modeling for Local-Life Service Recommendation (2025) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling 52 OneLoc: Geo-Aware Generative Recommender Systems for Local Life Service (2026) Item Tokenization and Semantic IDs |
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| 15 | Han Li 0005 | 53 | 3 | 75 Enhancing Sequential Recommender with Large Language Models for Joint Video and Comment Recommendation (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 63 LEARN: Knowledge Adaptation from Large Language Model to Recommendation for Practical Industrial Application (2025) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 16 | Yang Song 0008 assigned | 53 | 3 | 70 Large Language Models Enhanced Collaborative Filtering (2024) LLM-Enhanced Collaborative Filtering 55 Learning and Optimization of Implicit Negative Feedback for Industrial Short-video Recommender System (2023) Multi-Behavior and Multi-Interest Sequential Recommendation |
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| 18 | Jieming Zhu | 52 | 3 | 73 ROMA: Recommendation-Oriented Language Model Adaptation Using Multi-Modal Multi-Domain Item Sequences (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 69 EAGER-LLM: Enhancing Large Language Models as Recommenders through Exogenous Behavior-Semantic Integration (2025) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 19 | Chen Wang 0052 | 52 | 3 | 63 Collaborative Alignment for Recommendation (2024) Collaborative-Semantic Representation Alignment 58 Cluster-Aware Item Prompt Learning for Session-Based Recommendation (2025) LLM-Enhanced Sequential Recommendation |
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| 20 | Hao Liu 0078 | 52 | 3 | 70 WeaveRec: An LLM-Based Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation Framework with Model Merging (2026) Efficiency and Deployment 49 Mitigating Distribution Shifts in Sequential Recommendation: An Invariance Perspective (2025) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation |
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| 22 | Jie Jiang 0015 COI: co-author | 51 | 3 | 96 Pre-train, Align, and Disentangle: Empowering Sequential Recommendation with Large Language Models (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 68 Cross-Scale Collaboration between LLMs and Lightweight Sequential Recommenders with Domain-Specific Latent Reasoning (2026) Generative Recommendation and Item Tokenization |
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| 23 | Yupeng Hou | 51 | 3 | 66 Adapting Large Language Models by Integrating Collaborative Semantics for Recommendation (2024) Collaborative-Semantic Representation Alignment 54 CoRAL: Collaborative Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Models Improve Long-tail Recommendation (2024) RAG for Domain Applications |
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| 25 | Wei Guo 0006 | 51 | 3 | 54 FuXi-γ: Efficient Sequential Recommendation with Exponential-Power Temporal Encoder and Diagonal-Sparse Positional Mechanism (2026) Efficient Sequential Recommendation Architectures 54 Dataset Regeneration for Sequential Recommendation (2024) Recommendation Systems and Evaluation |
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| 28 | Ke Wang 0038 | 50 | 3 | 86 Enhancing Cross-Domain Recommendation with Plug-In Contrastive Representations from Large Language Models (2025) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 73 LLM-Grounded Diffusion for Cross-Domain Recommendation (2025) Diffusion and Flow Recommenders |
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| 29 | Chongming Gao | 50 | 3 | 62 Large Language Models are Learnable Planners for Long-Term Recommendation (2024) Preference Alignment and Optimization 55 Tunable LLM-based Proactive Recommendation Agent (2025) Preference Alignment and Optimization |
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| 30 | Lantao Hu | 50 | 3 | 56 Modeling User Fatigue for Sequential Recommendation (2024) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation 53 MODEM: Decoupling User Behavior for Shared-Account Video Recommendations on Large Screen Devices (2024) Graph Contrastive and Self-Supervised Learning |
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| 31 | Chunyang Wang 0001 | 50 | 3 | 57 Learning Graph-based Disentangled Representations for Next POI Recommendation (2022) Sequential and Session-Based Graph Recommendation 54 MESA: Plugin Meta-Modulation for Transformer-Based Cold-Start Sequential Recommendation (2026) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling |
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| 32 | Yongjing Hao | 50 | 3 | 53 Tell Me Where to Go Next: Improving POI Recommendation via Conversation (2021) Conversational Recommendation Systems 52 Feature-Level Deeper Self-Attention Network With Contrastive Learning for Sequential Recommendation (2023) Contrastive and Self-Supervised Sequential Recommendation |
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| 33 | James Caverlee | 50 | 3 | 75 Language Models as Semantic Augmenters for Sequential Recommenders (2026) Sequential and Session-based Recommendation 54 Consistency-Aware Recommendation for User-Generated Item List Continuation (2020) Multimodal Recommendation for Domain Applications |
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| 34 | Jiangxia Cao | 50 | 3 | 67 Enhancing Content-based Recommendation via Large Language Model (2024) Collaborative-Semantic Representation Alignment 55 CDSRNP: Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation via Neural Process (2025) Cross-Domain Sequential Recommendation |
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| 35 | Junjie Zhang 0009 | 50 | 3 | 54 Frequency-Augmented Mixture-of-Heterogeneous-Experts Framework for Sequential Recommendation (2025) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling 50 Tapping the Potential of Large Language Models as Recommender Systems: A Comprehensive Framework and Empirical Analysis (2025) Efficiency and Deployment |
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| 36 | Noveen Sachdeva | 49 | 3 | 54 Explicit Modelling of the Implicit Short Term User Preferences for Music Recommendation (2018) Sequential Recommendation with User Modeling and Profiling 50 Attentive neural architecture incorporating song features for music recommendation (2018) Sequential Recommendation with Side and Multimodal Information |