IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v87y2026ics0160791x2600120x.html

Generative AI in practice: An umbrella review of risks, benefits, ethics, and future directions across major domains

Author

Listed:
  • Hodzic, Selma
  • Stevic, Anja
  • Matthes, Jörg

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence has rapidly evolved, influencing diverse fields such as healthcare, education, and technology. While the benefits of GAI, such as automation, decision-making support, and personalization, are widely recognized, concerns regarding bias, misinformation, ethical implications, and regulatory gaps persist. We conducted an umbrella review to synthesize existing literature on GAI, focusing on key research topics, methodological trends, associated risks and benefits, ethical considerations, AI literacy, and regulatory strategies. The analysis of N = 170 studies reveals that the majority of research centers on health, technology, and education. Importantly, the literature presents a balanced discourse of risks and benefits. However, the framing of risks and benefits varied by topical domain. Furthermore, ethical concerns remain comparatively underexplored and AI literacy only received little attention, especially in the health and technology domains. Also, there is an overall need for more empirical evaluations of AI adoption, interdisciplinary perspectives, and enhanced ethical guidelines. Implications for the interdisciplinary study of GAI are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Hodzic, Selma & Stevic, Anja & Matthes, Jörg, 2026. "Generative AI in practice: An umbrella review of risks, benefits, ethics, and future directions across major domains," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:87:y:2026:i:c:s0160791x2600120x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103331
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X2600120X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103331?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:87:y:2026:i:c:s0160791x2600120x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.