Intelligent Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Technologies: An Overview

The research into artificial intelligence (AI), the metaverse, and extended reality (XR) technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR), has been expanding over the recent years. This study aims to provide an overview regarding the combination of AI with XR technologies and the metaverse through the examination of 880 articles using different approaches. The field has experienced a 91.29% increase in its annual growth rate, and although it is still in its infancy, the outcomes of this study highlight the potential of these technologies to be effectively combined and applied in various domains transforming and enriching them. Through content analysis and topic modeling, the main topics and areas in which this combination is mostly being researched and applied are as follows: (1) “Education/Learning/Training”, (2) “Healthcare and Medicine”, (3) “Generative artificial intelligence/Large language models”, (4) “Virtual worlds/Virtual avatars/Virtual assistants”, (5) “Human-computer interaction”, (6) “Machine learning/Deep learning/Neural networks”, (7) “Communication networks”, (8) “Industry”, (9) “Manufacturing”, (10) “E-commerce”, (11) “Entertainment”, (12) “Smart cities”, and (13) “New technologies” (e.g., digital twins, blockchain, internet of things, etc.). The study explores the documents through various dimensions and concludes by presenting the existing limitations, identifying key challenges, and providing suggestions for future research.