This book highlights new trends and challenges in research on agents and the new digital and knowledge economy. It includes papers on business process management, agent-based modeling and simulation and anthropic-oriented computing that were originally presented at the 17th International KES Conference on Agents and Multi-Agent Systems: Technologies and Applications (KES-AMSTA 2023), held in Rome, Italy, in June 14–16, 2023. The respective papers cover topics such as software agents, multi-agent systems, agent modeling, mobile and cloud computing, big data analysis, business intelligence, artificial intelligence, social systems, computer embedded systems and nature-inspired manufacturing, all of which contribute to the modern digital economy.

Gordan Jezic is a professor at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. His research interest includes telecommunication networks and services focusing particularly on parallel and distributed systems, machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of things (IoT) systems, communication networks and protocols, mobile software agents and multi-agent systems. He actively participates in numerous international conferences as a paper author, speaker, member of organizing and program committees or reviewer. He co-authored over 100 scientific and professional papers, book chapters and articles in journals and conference proceedings.  Yun-Heh Jessica Chen-Burger is an assistant professor at the department of Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University. She was a research fellow of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include enterprise modeling, process modeling, execution and mining technologies and how they may interact with agent technologies to solve complex real-world problems. She is a committee member of several international conferences, journals and chair of conference and conference sessions. She is PI to several research and commercial projects.  Mario Kusek is a professor at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. He holds Ph.D. (2005) in electrical engineering, from the University of Zagreb. He is currently a lecturer of 9 courses and has supervised over 130 students at B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. studies. He participated in numerous projects in local and internationals. He has co-authored over 80 papers in journals, conferences and books in the area of distributed systems, multi-agent systems, self-organized systems and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. Prof. Kušek is a member of IEEE, KES International and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). He serves as a program co-chair at two international conferences.  Roman Šperka is an associate professor and head of Department of Business Economics and Management at Silesian University in Opava, School of Business Administration in Karvina, Czech Republic. He holds Ph.D. title in "Business economics and management" and Dr. title in "Applied informatics" since 2013. He has been participating as a head researcher or research team member in several projects funded by Silesian University Grant System or EU funds. His field of expertise is business process management, process mining, implementation and deployment of information systems and software frameworks; the use of agent-based technology in social sciences; and modeling and simulation in economic systems and financial markets.  Dr. Robert Howlett is the executive chair of KES International, a non-profit organization that facilitates knowledge transfer and the dissemination of research results in areas including intelligent systems, sustainability and knowledge transfer. He is a visiting professor at Bournemouth University in theUK. His technical expertise is in the use of intelligent systems to solve industrial problems. He has been successful in applying artificial intelligence, machine learning and related technologies to sustainability and renewable energy systems; condition monitoring, diagnostic tools and systems; and automotive electronics and engine management systems. His current research work is focused on the use of smart microgrids to achieve reduced energy costs and lower carbon emissions in areas such as housing and protected horticulture.  Professor Lakhmi C. Jain, PhD, Dr H.C., ME, BE(Hons), Fellow (Engineers Australia), is with the University of Arad. He was formerly with the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Canberra and Bournemouth University. Professor Jain founded the KES International for providing a professional community the opportunities for publications, knowledge exchange, cooperation and teaming. Involving around 5,000 researchers drawn from universities and companies world-wide, KES facilitates international cooperation and generate synergy in teaching and research. KES regularly provides networking opportunities for professional community through one of the largest conferences of its kind in the area of KES. His interests focus on the artificial intelligence paradigms and their applications in complex systems, security, e-education, e-healthcare, unmanned air vehicles and intelligent agents.