Applications of artificial intelligence in COVID-19 pandemic: A comprehensive review

• Published in: Expert systems with applications 2021-12, Vol.185, p.115695-115695, Article 115695
• Main Authors: Khan, Muzammil, Mehran, Muhammad Taqi, Haq, Zeeshan Ul, Ullah, Zahid, Naqvi, Salman Raza, Ihsan, Mehreen, Abbass, Haider
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Citation indexes; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Deep learning; Drug repurposing; Emergency medical services; Health care; Machine learning; Medical research; New technology; Pandemics; Public health; R&D; Research & development; Review; SARS-CoV-2; Viral diseases
• ISSN: 0957-4174; 1873-6793; 0957-4174
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eswa.2021.115695

•Applications of Artificial Intelligence in combating COVID-19 pandemic are reviewed.•Comparision of Machine Learning and Deep Learning-based studies are presented.•Focused on COVID-19 screening, diagnosis, prediction, and drug repurposing.•Various challenges and limitations are discussed. During the current global public health emergency caused by novel coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), researchers and medical experts started working day and night to search for new technologies to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent studies have shown that artificial intelligence (AI)has been successfully employed in the health sector for various healthcare procedures. This study comprehensively reviewed the research and development on state-of-the-art applications of artificial intelligence for combating the COVID-19 pandemic. In the process of literature retrieval, the relevant literature from citation databases including ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and Preprints from arXiv, medRxiv, and bioRxiv was selected. Recent advances in the field of AI-based technologies are critically reviewed and summarized. Various challenges associated with the use of these technologies are highlighted and based on updated studies and critical analysis, research gaps and future recommendations are identified and discussed. The comparison between various machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) methods, the dominant AI-based technique, mostly used ML and DL methods for COVID-19 detection, diagnosis, screening, classification, drug repurposing, prediction, and forecasting, and insights about where the current research is heading are highlighted. Recent research and development in the field of artificial intelligence has greatly improved the COVID-19 screening, diagnostics, and prediction and results in better scale-up, timely response, most reliable, and efficient outcomes, and sometimes outperforms humans in certain healthcare tasks. This review article will help researchers, healthcare institutes and organizations, government officials, and policymakers with new insights into how AI can control the COVID-19 pandemic and drivemore research and studies for mitigating the COVID-19 outbreak.