A Review of Engineering Applications in Additive Manufacturing Enhanced by Artificial Intelligence

The convergence of additive manufacturing (AM) and artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to redefine the landscape of modern production; however, the literature remains fragmented across isolated applications, lacking a unified perspective on the engineering impact and practical deployment of these technologies. This review provides a comprehensive and critical synthesis of the state of the art in AI-enhanced AM, systematically covering supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning paradigms, alongside deep-learning-based computer vision, natural language processing, and robotics. In contrast to prior works that focus on singular aspects, this paper consolidates progress across four core engineering domains: (i) lightweight and manufacturable design, (ii) real-time in situ defect detection and process analysis, (iii) energy-efficient process optimization, and (iv) cost-effective build-time estimation with intelligent support minimization. Beyond cataloging these advances, this review identifies key quantitative benchmarks and recurring technical challenges, including data scarcity, poor model generalizability, and the critical gap between offline prediction and real-time closed-loop control. To transcend these isolated successes and enable industrial adoption, we propose a novel, unified closed-loop AI-AM framework that tightly integrates generative design, process planning, in situ production monitoring, and continuous model updating into a cohesive digital thread. Furthermore, a domain-stratified SWOT analysis is compiled, offering a strategic evaluation of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats across the four application pillars. By bridging the gap between laboratory prototypes and production-ready autonomous systems, this review serves as a definitive reference for researchers and practitioners aiming to navigate, deploy, and advance the rapidly evolving field of AI in additive manufacturing.