Augmenting Education: The Transformative Power of AR, AI, and Emerging Technologies

Abstract

Augmented reality (AR) reshapes the educational landscape by seamlessly blending digital content with physical environments to create highly immersive, interactive, and engaging learning experiences. This paper presents a comprehensive systematic literature review (SLR) of 35 peer-reviewed studies to evaluate the current state of AR integration in education critically. The review analyzes key variables such as skills acquisition, pedagogical frameworks, technological features, and domain-specific applications to understand the broader impact of AR on teaching and learning. The findings reveal that AR significantly enhances student engagement (37.14%), learning experiences (34.29%), and motivation (22.86%), making it a powerful tool for fostering active participation and long-term knowledge retention. Widely adopted AR technologies include AR toolkits, 3D AR models, mobile AR applications, and marker-based/markerless systems, which support hands-on learning across diverse disciplines. The study also highlights the pedagogical versatility of AR, showing strong alignment with models such as constructivist learning, inquiry-based learning, flipped classrooms, and experiential learning, enabling educators to tailor instructional strategies to diverse student needs. In terms of disciplinary reach, AR is most prevalent in general education (27.77%) and engineering (22.22%), followed by applications in science, chemistry, medical education, and STEM. However, the review also identifies underexplored areas, particularly the limited focus on academic achievement, visualization improvement, and content realism, especially in fields like medicine and science where accurate simulations are critical. To address these gaps, the paper explores the potential of AI-powered chatbots as a complement to AR environments. These intelligent systems offer real-time, personalized feedback, enabling adaptive learning pathways that respond to individual performance and cognitive development. The integration of AI enhances AR by making learning more inclusive, student-centered, and efficient, particularly beneficial for learners with diverse needs and learning paces. Despite the transformative potential of AR, challenges such as accessibility, cost, usability, and teacher readiness remain significant barriers to large-scale adoption. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and NCERT support future educational frameworks to integrate AR and AI into curriculum design for underserved and multilingual contexts. This paper supports the development of inclusive AR systems that scale up and follow pedagogical principles to enhance experiential learning and digital equity, and cognitive development in various educational settings.