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In this paper, we frame the application of RL in practice as a three-component process: (i) online learning and optimization during deployment, (ii) post- or between-deployment offline analyses, and (iii) repeated cycles of deployment and redeployment to continually improve the RL system. We provide a narrative review of recent advances that address the statistical challenges arising across these three components, including methods for enhancing sample efficiency during online deployment, maximizing data utility for post- or between-deployment inference, and designing sequences of deployments for continual improvement. We also outline future research directions in RL that are use-inspired -- aiming for impactful application of RL in practice.
From: Yongyi Guo [view email]
[v1]
Wed, 21 Jan 2026 04:58:49 UTC (1,224 KB)
[v2]
Sun, 12 Jul 2026 06:33:48 UTC (1,184 KB)
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