Systematic Literature Review of Human–AI Collaboration for Intelligent Construction
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology, serving as an indispensable component within intelligent construction systems, has become a cornerstone for driving the digital and intelligent transformation of the construction industry. Although AI demonstrates autonomous decision-making capabilities in specific operational contexts, because of the dynamic and often unforeseeable nature of construction workflows, human–AI collaboration (HAIC) still dominates the operational paradigm. This study undertakes a systematic review of the prior research on human–AI collaboration in intelligent construction. Through a bibliometric search, scientometric analysis, and in-depth literature classification, 191 highly cited articles in the past five years, which are in the top 10% by citation count within the dataset (as of May 2025, based on Scopus, Google Scholar, and WOS), were screened, and four research streams were formed based on a co-citation analysis and clustering, namely, construction robotics, productivity and safety, intelligent algorithms and modelling, and factors related to construction workers. Finally, a three-dimensional knowledge framework covering the technical layer, application layer, and management layer was constructed. Through this comprehensive synthesis, the study developed a human–AI collaboration knowledge framework in the field of construction science that integrates technology, scenarios, and management dimensions, revealing the co-evolutionary path of artificial intelligence technology and industry digital transformation.
Authors
- Juan Du (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3221-6810)
- Vijayan Sugumaran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2557-3182)
- Xuewei Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0746-7269)
- Ruoqi Gu
Institutions
- Shanghai University (CN)
- Oakland University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Applied Sciences
- Published
- 2026-01-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/app16020597
- Primary Topic
- BIM and Construction Integration
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00