--- title: "Ali Payani · Cisco Systems — author profile and papers" description: "Ali Payani, Cisco Systems: 4 papers on Elamur Research (2024–2026), h-index 10 — affiliations, topics, co-authors and who cites them in…" canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ali-payani/" --- [Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ali-payani/) [home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [authors](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/) / Ali Payani # Ali Payani Ali Payani has 4 papers in our library, in 2024–2026, most of them on [Language models & pretraining](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/language-models/), [Low-resource languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/low-resource-languages/), [Reasoning](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/reasoning/); often with [Amir Saeidi](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/amir-saeidi/), [Chitta Baral](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/chitta-baral/), [Fan Yang](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/fan-yang/). 4 papers in our library · 2024–2026 [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/A5076250758) · [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4054-2958) · [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q130931268) · [**h-index 10**](https://openalex.org/authors/A5076250758) · [79 works](https://openalex.org/works?filter=author.id:A5076250758) · [340 citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=author.id:A5076250758&sort=cited_by_count:desc) OpenAlex, 2026-10-14 [📄 4 works in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ali-payani/#papers) · [🔗 Cited 93 times in our library](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ali-payani/cited-by/) · [1 more in our library without a page yet](#also) · [⭐ Paper Stars ranking: #6437](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/paper-stars/page/65/#star-6437) The profile is the library's match of the name; two people with one name are not always told apart. Elsewhere: [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=search_authors&mauthors=Ali+Payani) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/search?q=Ali+Payani) · [dblp](https://dblp.org/search?q=Ali+Payani) · [ACL Anthology](https://aclanthology.org/search/?q=Ali+Payani) ## Affiliations [🏢**Cisco Systems** San Jose · United States 2021–2026 · 23 papers*current*](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/companies/cisco-systems/) · [🎓**Arizona State University** Tempe · United States 2026 · 4 papers*current*](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/arizona-state-university/) · [🤝**Cisco And Cisco Productions** River Forest · United States 2026 · 1 paper*current*](https://ror.org/05c35qx73) · [🎓**Cisco College** Cisco · United States 2026 · 1 paper*current*](https://ror.org/03gc7jk79) · [🎓**Georgia Institute of Technology** Atlanta · United States 2016–2021 · 12 papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/georgia-institute-of-technology/) From the bylines of their papers (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14), ORCID and Wikidata; institutions on papers are matched by machine. 2 more institutions on single bylines are not listed. ## Fields, topics and concepts Of its works in our library, with the number of works on each. 📚 Shelves 4 The field of science this work belongs to (OpenAlex fields).[Artificial Intelligence · 4 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/artificial-intelligence/) · [Arts and Humanities · 4 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/) · [Computer Science · 4 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/computer-science/) · [Language and Linguistics · 4 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/arts-and-humanities/language-and-linguistics/) 🧭 Topics 3 Research subjects and languages the work is about.[Language models & pretraining · 4 works](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/language-models/) · [Low-resource languages · 1 work](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/low-resource-languages/) · [Reasoning · 1 work](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/reasoning/) ## Works by year ### 2020s [**2026** 1 paper](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ali-payani/year/2026/) · [**2025** 1 paper](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ali-payani/year/2025/) · [**2024** 2 papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ali-payani/year/2024/) ## Papers The most cited first (OpenAlex and our library). 1. **[Language Ranker: A Metric for Quantifying LLM Performance Across High and Low-Resource Languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/li-2024-language-ranker-metric-quantifying-llm/)** *(2024 · 95 citations)* LLMs are trained on corpora dominated by English. For example, about 92.65% of GPT-3 tokens and 89.7% of LlaMa2 pre-training data are English. As a result, low-resource languages get weaker support, yet there are few quantitative ways to measure this gap. The authors propose Language Ranker, an intrinsic metric that… 2. **[When is Tree Search Useful for LLM Planning? It Depends on the Discriminator](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/chen-2024-when-is-tree-search-useful/)** *(2024 · 28 citations)* The paper asks when sophisticated planning strategies actually help LLM agents on multi-step tasks. The authors model an agent as three components: a generator that proposes programs, a discriminator that scores them as a yes/no correctness question, and a planning method. They compare re-ranking with iterative… 3. **[Deliberate Reasoning in Language Models as Structure-Aware Planning with an Accurate World Model](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/xiong-2025-deliberate-reasoning-language-models-as/)** *(2025 · 7 citations)* Chain-of-Thought prompting lets language models reason step by step. However, purely textual chains are hard to check and often contain inconsistent or hallucinated steps. Fully formal alternatives, such as first-order logic or programs, generalize poorly across task types. Xiong et al. propose SWAP, a semi-formal… 4. **[FAMA: Failure-Aware Meta-Agentic Framework for Open-Source LLMs in Interactive Tool Use Environments](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/saeidi-2026-fama-failure-aware-meta-agentic/)** *(2026)* LLM-driven agents in multi-turn customer-service tool-use settings often fail because early wrong decisions compound over the conversation. ## All works 5 works of theirs in our library, the most cited first; 4 with a page here, the others link their original until we summarise them. 1. **[Language Ranker: A Metric for Quantifying LLM Performance Across High and Low-Resource Languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/li-2024-language-ranker-metric-quantifying-llm/) [Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/proceedings-of-the-aaai-conference-on-artificial-intelligence/)**Zihao Li, Yucheng Shi, Zirui Liu, et al.*2024 · 95 citations* 2. **[When is Tree Search Useful for LLM Planning? It Depends on the Discriminator](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/chen-2024-when-is-tree-search-useful/) [Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/acl/)**Ziru Chen, Michael White, Ray Mooney, et al.*2024 · 28 citations* 3. **[Investigating the Shortcomings of LLMs in Step-by-Step Legal Reasoning ↗](https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-naacl.435/) Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: NAACL 2025 · no summary yet**Venkatesh Mishra et al.*2025 · 13 citations* 4. **[Deliberate Reasoning in Language Models as Structure-Aware Planning with an Accurate World Model](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/xiong-2025-deliberate-reasoning-language-models-as/) [Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/acl/)**Siheng Xiong, Ali Payani, Yuan Yang, et al.*2025 · 7 citations* 5. **[FAMA: Failure-Aware Meta-Agentic Framework for Open-Source LLMs in Interactive Tool Use Environments](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/saeidi-2026-fama-failure-aware-meta-agentic/) [Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/findings/)**Amir Saeidi, Venkatesh Mishra, Souradeep Mukhopadhyay, et al.*2026* ## Co-authors here 12 of 16 co-authors with a page, the most papers together first. - [Amir Saeidi](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/amir-saeidi/) - [Chitta Baral](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/chitta-baral/) - [Fan Yang](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/fan-yang/) - [Faramarz Fekri](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/faramarz-fekri/) - [Gaowen Liu](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/gaowen-liu/) - [Huan Sun](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/huan-sun/) - [Jayanth Srinivasa](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/jayanth-srinivasa/) - [Mengnan Du](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/mengnan-du/) - [Michael White](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/michael-white/) - [Ninghao Liu](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ninghao-liu/) - [Ray Mooney](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ray-mooney/) - [Siheng Xiong](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/siheng-xiong/) ## Venues Where their works here were published, the most works first, with the editions of those that have a page. - [Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/acl/) ×2: [ACL 2025](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/acl/2025/), [ACL 2024](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/acl/2024/) - [Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/findings/): [Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics 2026](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/findings/2026/) - [Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/proceedings-of-the-aaai-conference-on-artificial-intelligence/): [Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence 2024](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/proceedings-of-the-aaai-conference-on-artificial-intelligence/2024/) - Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: NAACL 2025 ## Cited by Papers of our library cite their works 93 times (of the 149,439 papers whose bibliographies we read); [17 citing papers with a page here →](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/ali-payani/cited-by/). Updated 1 November 2026