AI-Assisted OSINT/SOCMINT for Safeguarding Borders: A Systematic Review

In the highly volatile realm of global security, the necessity for leading-edge and effectual border resilience tactics has never been more imperative. This PRISMA 2020 guided systematic literature review (SLR) examines the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), open-source intelligence (OSINT), and social media intelligence (SOCMINT) for enhancing border protection. Our systematic investigation across major databases (IEEE Xplore, Scopus, SpringerLink, MDPI, ACM) and grey literature sources yielded 3932 initial records and, after screening and eligibility assessment, 73 studies and reports from acknowledged organizations, contributing to the evidence synthesis. Three research questions (RQ1–RQ3) were addressed concerning the following: (a) the effectiveness and application of AI in OSINT/SOCMINT for border protection, its (b) data, technical, and operational limitations, and its (c) ethical, legal, and societal implications (GELSI). Evidence matrices summarize the findings, while narrative syntheses underline and thematically group the extracted insights. Results indicate that AI techniques—fluctuating from machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to computer vision and emerging large language models (LLMs)—produce quantifiable improvements in forecasting irregular migration, detecting human trafficking, and supporting multimodal intelligence fusion. However, limitations include misinformation, data bias, adversarial vulnerabilities, governance deficits, and sandbox-to-production gaps. Ethical and societal concerns highlight risks of surveillance overreach, discrimination, and insufficient oversight, among others. To our knowledge, this is the first SLR at this intersection. We conclude that, AI-assisted OSINT/SOCMINT presents transformative potential for border protection requiring, nonetheless, balanced governance, robust validation, and future research on LLM/agentic AI, human–AI teaming, and oversight mechanisms.