AI and Systems Engineering: A Decade of Progress and Gaps.

The intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Systems Engineering (SE) has seen significant growth, particularly since a landmark INCOSE INSIGHT special issue in 2020. This paper provides a retrospective and prospective analysis of this evolving field, categorizing its development into three distinct phases: foundational, applied, and the current LLM inflection point. The authors articulate areas where the community has reached consensus and highlight persistent critical gaps in research. To complement this historical review, a comprehensive literature review was conducted, leveraging both human expertise and six AI models to evaluate the relevance of over 2,600 articles from INCOSE INSIGHT and SERC publications. The findings from this review pinpoint five crucial research gaps that need addressing. Furthermore, the paper offers practical guidance for professionals navigating the adoption, assurance, and workforce transformation challenges posed by AI in Systems Engineering. An accompanying web application, the AI4SE/SE4AI Explorer, is provided for readers to compare their own relevance judgments with those of human and AI raters.