The Global Landscape of Research on AI Literacy: A Bibliometric Analysis of Trends, Collaborations, and Emerging Themes

This full research study paper presents a bibliometric analysis of 902 peer-reviewed publications on Artificial Intelligence Literacy (AIL) indexed in Scopus from 2021 to early 2025, mapping key trends, gaps, and future directions. The findings indicate a sharp rise in publications from 2023 onward aligns with the widespread adoption of generative AI tools in education. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that social sciences, computer science, and engineering fields dominate the publication landscape, with the majority of research being published in educational technology journals. The United States, Hong Kong, and China emerged as major contributors, though global collaboration remains uneven, particularly in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Next, author keyword co-occurrence revealed eight thematic clusters linking AIL to ethics, education levels (K-12 and higher education), GenAI, digital literacies, and instructional design, while identifying underexplored areas such as early AI exposure and informal learning. Additionally, the textbased co-occurrence analysis of titles and abstracts further revealed four major themes: classroom AI integration, behavioral measurement, ethical considerations, and GenAI. However, despite rapid growth, gaps persist in methodological diversity, interdisciplinary participation (particularly in STEM and biomedical domains), and representation of marginalized communities. Hence, recommendations and implications are discussed to address these gaps and guide ongoing AIL research.