GAIVVARIABILITY 2026
GAIV 2026 – Workshop on Generative AI and Variability
Co-located with VARIABILITY 2026, September 29, 2026Call for Papers
Overview
The Workshop on Generative AI and Variability (GAIV 2026) invites high-quality contributions from researchers and practitioners in software engineering, artificial intelligence, and related disciplines, focusing on the intersection of generative AI (GenAI) and variability-intensive systems. As configurable systems and GenAI technologies rapidly evolve, their interaction raises new opportunities and challenges: GenAI can automate variability engineering tasks, while variability introduces complexity in AI pipelines, prompts, and generated artifacts. GAIV provides a dedicated forum to explore this emerging research space and foster collaboration between the variability and AI-in-SE communities.
Topics of Interest
GenAI for Variability Engineering Feature model extraction, completion, and synthesis LLM-assisted configuration and decision support Automated SPL migration and reengineering GenAI-supported testing, analysis, and debugging Documentation and traceability generation Domain modeling and ontology extraction Variability in GenAI Systems Variability in prompts, parameters, and outputs Product line techniques for AI pipelines and model families Reuse of AI components across variants Consistency and traceability of generated artifacts Feature modeling for AI configuration spaces Testing and quality assurance of AI-based systems Cross-Cutting Themes Empirical studies and evaluations Human–AI collaboration Industrial experience reports Ethical, legal, and quality aspects
Workshop Format
GAIV is planned as an interactive half-day workshop (extendable to full day).
The program includes: Paper presentations with discussion Invited talk from the AI/SE community Interactive working group session to identify research challenges
Submission Guidelines
Paper Types:
- Regular Papers should be mature research contributions and must be up to 16 pages, including references.
- Short Papers should present work in progress or novel ideas and must be up to 9 pages, including references.
Formatting
Submissions must follow the Springer LNCS format: https://www.springer.com/gp/computer-science/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelinesReview & Publication
Single-blind peer review (≥2 reviewers) Evaluation: novelty, relevance, rigor, clarity Accepted papers (except position papers) will appear in the VARIABILITY 2026 Proceedings (LNCS)Important Dates
Workshop Papers Submission: June 30, 2026
Workshop Papers Notification: 15 July, 2026
Camera Ready: 31 July, 2026
Author Registration: 31 July, 2026
Workshop: September 29th 2026
Goals
GAIV aims to:
- Connect variability and GenAI research communities
- Identify key challenges and research directions
- Develop a shared research agenda
- Foster interdisciplinary collaborations
Organizers
Martin Becker – Fraunhofer IESE, Germany Kristof Meixner – TU Wien, Austria Kentarou Yoshimura - Hitachi, Japan
Submission
Submissions will be handled via the VARIABILITY 2026 system (https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=variability2026).
Further details will be available on the workshop website - https://sites.google.com/view/gaiv-2026
Tue 29 SepDisplayed time zone: Athens change
08:30 - 17:00 | |||
10:30 - 11:00 | |||
10:30 30mCoffee break | Break Catering | ||
12:30 - 14:00 | |||
12:30 90mLunch | Lunch Catering | ||
14:00 - 15:30 | |||
14:00 10mDay opening | Welcome and Introduction GAIV | ||
14:10 40mTalk | GAIV From a Tool's Provider's Perspective GAIV | ||
14:50 40mKeynote | Generative AI and Software Variability - An earlier research vision, today's reality, and a possible future GAIV Sandra Greiner University of Southern Denmark | ||
15:30 - 16:00 | |||
15:30 30mCoffee break | Break Catering | ||
16:00 - 17:30 | |||
16:00 30mTalk | Variability Management for AI-Enabled Systems: An Industry Perspective GAIV Kentaro Yoshimura Hitachi, Ltd. | ||
16:30 20mTalk | Fluent in Variability? An Empirical Study of Large Language Models Across Variability-Related Tasks and Formats GAIV Nada Zine Inria, Johannes Stümpfle University of Stuttgart, Clément Quinton University of Lille, Nasser Jazdi University of Stuttgart, Michael Weyrich Universiy of Stuttgart, Romain Rouvoy Univ. Lille / Inria / IUF | ||
16:50 20mTalk | Fine-Tuning Small Language Models For Valid Universal Variability Language Generation GAIV Johannes Stümpfle University of Stuttgart, Florian Schatz University of Stuttgart, Nasser Jazdi University of Stuttgart, Michael Weyrich Universiy of Stuttgart | ||
17:10 20mTalk | Update on GAIV research vision (Martin Becker, Kristof Meixner, and Kentaro Yoshimura) GAIV | ||