Artificial Intelligence in Vaccine Research and Development: An Umbrella Review

Rabie Adel ElArab^1*May May Alkhunaizi²Yousef N. Alhashem¹Alissar Al Khatib¹Munirah Bubsheet¹Dr.Salwa Hassanein¹

• ¹Almoosa College of Health Sciences, Al Ahsaa, Saudi Arabia
• ²Almoosa Specialist Hospital, Al-Ahsa, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia

The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines highlighted the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in modern vaccinology, accelerating timelines from years to months.Nevertheless, the specific roles and effectiveness of AI in accelerating and enhancing vaccine research, development, distribution, and acceptance remain dispersed across various reviews, underscoring the need for a unified synthesis.We conducted an umbrella review to consolidate evidence on AI's contributions to vaccine discovery, optimization, clinical testing, supply-chain logistics, and public acceptance. Five databases (PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and IEEE Xplore) were systematically searched up to January 2025 for systematic, scoping, narrative, and rapid reviews, as well as meta-analyses explicitly focusing on AI in vaccine contexts. Data extraction encompassed AI techniques, vaccine platforms, disease targets, regulatory issues, and ethical considerations. Quality assessments were performed using the ROBIS and AMSTAR 2 tools to evaluate risk of bias and methodological rigor.Twenty-seven reviews met the inclusion criteria, covering a spectrum of AI methods-machine learning, deep learning, generative models, and natural language processing-applied to mRNA, peptide-based, viral vector, and protein subunit vaccines targeting COVID-19, influenza, HIV, dengue, cancer, and other pathogens. AI-driven approaches shortened research timelines, particularly in epitope prediction and adaptive clinical trial designs, and showed promise in enhancing vaccine efficacy and safety through multi-omic data integration. Nonetheless, major concerns regarding data heterogeneity, algorithmic bias, regulatory uncertainty, and cold-chain logistics persist. Emerging AI-driven communication strategies and sentiment analysis tools offer potential for mitigating vaccine hesitancy, although long-term effectiveness on sustained public trust remains to be established.AI is poised to reshape vaccine development by expediting discovery, optimizing manufacturing, and improving public engagement. Realizing these benefits, however, demands robust regulatory frameworks, equitable data-sharing consortia, and ethical oversight to mitigate biases and safeguard privacy. Strategic investment in infrastructure, multidisciplinary collaboration, and transparent governance will be critical for translating AI-driven innovations into global immunization success and pandemic preparedness.