Harnessing AI and Sustainable Materials for Greener, Smarter Buildings: A Bibliometric Study

As global energy challenges intensify, reducing energy consumption in buildings is becoming a crucial economic and environmental priority. Despite extensive research on energy efficiency, a comprehensive synthesis that addresses emerging trends, eco-friendly insulation materials, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods remains limited. This study aims to bridge this gap through a bibliometric analysis of 2477 articles from the Scopus database, using the tools VOSviewer and Biblioshiny to explore several key questions: What are the dominant research trends? Who are the most influential contributors? And how are AI and sustainable insulation technologies evolving and converging to optimize energy performance? The analysis highlights major research themes, global collaboration networks, and two key strategies: eco-insulation materials, which help reduce environmental and technical costs, and AI-based solutions, which enable accurate energy predictions, real-time optimization, and material selection tailored to diverse climates and architectural contexts. Despite these advances, significant gaps remain in the development and characterization of eco-insulating materials. Future research should focus on integrating AI with sustainable insulation to enhance energy efficiency and minimize environmental impact, thereby paving the way for innovative, energy-resilient building solutions.