As a result of the evolution of agile methodologies in the software development industry, there are currently various applications of Natural Language Processing techniques, models, and tools to classify, extract, and analyze documents within the stages of the software development process. However, their utility has been relatively unexplored in relation to the processing of user stories, such as the most widely used technique for capturing and specifying requirements in the last decade. This article presents a content analysis based on a systematic literature mapping on the application of natural language processing in user stories, following Petersen’s methodological proposal. The search methodology is based on obtaining relevant articles from Dimensions, ScienceDirect, IEEE, and Scopus. Initially, 483 articles published between 2018 and 2022 were identified, and inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, filtering down to 125 articles for review. Finally, a quality assessment was conducted, resulting in 57 articles relevant. Analyzing these primary studies, findings are identified, and current/future lines of work are proposed as contributions to this field of knowledge. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.