Artificial Intelligence Transforming Higher Education: A Bibliometric Review of Intellectual Progress and Future Pathways

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-618-5_10How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence; Higher Education; Bibliometric Analysis; VOS viewer

Abstract

This study provides a comprehensive assessment of research on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in higher education by mapping the evolution of the field, identifying influential contributors, highly cited publications, collaboration networks, thematic developments, and emerging research trends between 2017 and 2026. To achieve these objectives, the study integrates bibliometric techniques with quantitative descriptive analysis to evaluate the most impactful scholarly publications. Bibliographic data were retrieved from the Scopus database, and after eliminating duplicate records, a final dataset comprising 7,085 documents was analysed. The analytical framework incorporated citation analysis, co-authorship analysis, co-word analysis, and bibliographic coupling, while VOSviewer software was employed to visualize the intellectual structure and research networks within the field. The findings indicate that China, India, and the United Kingdom are the leading contributors to AI-related higher education research. Furthermore, Lecture Notes in Education and Communications in Computer and Information Science emerged as the most influential publication sources. The co-authorship analysis highlights strong collaborative research networks, particularly among developed countries, whereas the co-word analysis identifies adaptive learning, predictive analytics, and ChatGPT as the dominant and rapidly evolving research themes. Overall, the review demonstrates the transformative role of AI in enhancing teaching and learning processes, improving institutional management and administrative efficiency, and fostering educational innovation. The findings offer valuable theoretical, managerial, and practical implications for policymakers, universities, educators, and students seeking to promote the effective adoption of AI technologies in higher education. Despite these contributions, the study acknowledges certain limitations, which provide opportunities for future research to further expand knowledge in this evolving domain.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - S. Murali
AU  - M. H. Jagadish
AU  - Lokesha Gadigeppa Angadi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/06
TI  - Artificial Intelligence Transforming Higher Education: A Bibliometric Review of Intellectual Progress and Future Pathways
BT  - Proceedings of the 18th National IQAC Conference (ICon 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 105
EP  - 117
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-618-5_10
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-618-5_10
ID  - Murali2026
ER  -