The theory of fuzzy bipolar soft sets is an efficient extension of soft sets for depicting the bipolarity of uncertain fuzzy soft information; however, it is limited to a single expert. The present research article introduces the theory of an innovative hybrid model called the fuzzy bipolar soft expert sets, as a natural extension of two existing models (including fuzzy soft expert sets and fuzzy bipolar soft sets). The proposed model is highly suitable for describing the bipolarity of fuzzy soft information having multiple expert opinions. Some fundamental properties of the developed hybrid model are discussed, including subset, complement, union, intersection, AND operation, and OR operation. The proposed concepts are explained with detailed examples. Moreover, to demonstrate the applicability of our initiated model, an application of the proposed hybrid model is presented along with the developed algorithm to tackle the real-world group decision-making situation, that is, ranking effectiveness of tests in spread analysis of COVID-19. Finally, a comparative analysis of the developed model with some existing mathematical tools such as fuzzy soft expert sets and fuzzy bipolar soft sets is provided to show the cogency and reliability of the initiated model.

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Nowadays, several real-world decision-making problems concerning falling economies, power crises, depleting resources, etc., require efficient decision-making. To solve such problems, researchers proposed several hybrid models by combining the spherical fuzzy sets with other theories, such as spherical fuzzy soft sets, which is an efficient tool to deal with the uncertainties concerning positive, neutral, and negative memberships in the soft environment. However, all the existing hybridizations of spherical fuzzy sets fail to deal with information symmetrically in a bipolar soft environment. Accordingly, this paper presents a novel hybrid model called spherical fuzzy bipolar soft sets (SFBSSs) by fusing spherical fuzzy sets and bipolar soft sets, considering the opposite sets of parameters in symmetry. An example considering the selection of a chief management officer (CMO) for a multi-national company illustrates the proposed model in detail. In addition, some symmetric properties and algebraic operations of the initiated model, including subset, complement, relative null SFBSSs, relative absolute SFBSSs, extended union, extended intersection, restricted union, restricted intersection, AND, and OR operations, are discussed and illustrated via numerical examples. Further, some fundamental results, namely, commutativity, associativity, distribution, and De Morgan’s laws are presented for SFBSSs. Moreover, by considering the massive impact of hydropower in combating the energy crisis and possible dangers to fish migration, a multi-attribute decision-making problem concerning the ranking of downstream fish passage designs for a hydroelectric project is modeled and solved under the developed algorithm based on SFBSSs. Finally, a comparative analysis discusses the supremacy of the initiated model over its building blocks.