# Intelligent Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Technologies: An Overview
## 5 Conclusions  
XR technologies are rapidly advancing and being integrated into various domains. Specifically, the adoption and use of AR and VR have brought about several benefits and new opportunities to different sectors including education, healthcare, industry, etc. Simultaneously, due to the recent advances, AI is also gaining ground and being integrated into several domains reinforcing them and enriching them. These technologies can be combined to yield even greater outcomes; hence, the research into this topic is rapidly increasing. This study aimed to provide an overview through the examination, analysis, and mapping of the existing literature regarding the use of AI within AR, VR, and the metaverse.  
To provide a thorough overview, the study followed the PRISMA guidelines and used different analysis methods and tools. Specifically, the study focused on carrying out a bibliometric analysis, scientific mapping, content analysis, and topic modeling of the related literature. In total, the study examined 880 documents which were identified from Scopus and Web of Science and were published during 2015-2024. The study examined the main characteristics of the document collection and focused on identifying emerging and trend topics and areas of focus.  
The results of this study highlighted the potential that the integration of AI into AR, VR, and the metaverse can yield. Additionally, it revealed its wide applicability and capabilities of being effectively integrated into various domains. The study also confirmed the significance and novelty of the topic which showcases a significantly high growth rate (91.29%). Additionally, the study revealed the main research areas and directions and highlighted the following topics as the ones being more actively researched: \"Education/Learning/Training\", \"Healthcare and Medicine\", \"Generative artificial intelligence/Large language models\", \"Virtual worlds/Virtual avatars/Virtual assistants\", \"Human-computer interaction\", \"Machine learning/Deep learning/Neural networks\", \"Communication networks\", \"Industry\", \"Manufacturing\", \"E-commerce\", \"Entertainment\", \"Smart cities\", and \"New technologies\" (e.g., digital twins, blockchain, internet of things, etc.).  
However, the study has some limitations. Specifically, the documents identified were retrieved from two databases and only English documents were examined. Since the goal of this study was to provide a general overview of the field, a more in-depth content analysis targeted to a specific domain was not carried out. As a result, there is a clear need for future studies to further analyze the integration of AI, VR, and AR across different settings through systematic literature reviews and case studies. Additionally, effective frameworks, standards, and guidelines on how to develop relative solutions and integrate them should be created. Emphasis should also be placed on examining and addressing the challenges and barriers associated with the effective integration of AI within XR environments, such as technical, hardware, and software limitations, algorithmic bias considerations, security and privacy issues, ethical concerns, as well as development and adoption hurdles. There is also a need to create valid evaluation metrics to assess its effectiveness. Future studies should also examine security, privacy, and ethical aspects associated with the use of AI, XR technologies, and the metaverse. Finally, it is important to explore users' involvement, interactions, communications, perspectives, behaviors, and emotions while they are engaged within AI-enabled AR and VR environments as well as within the metaverse.  
This research received no external funding.  
All of the data are contained within the article. The data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the corresponding author upon reasonable request.  
The author declares no conflicts of interest.