The advance of digitalization in industry is making possible that connected products and processes help people, materials, energy, plant and equipment to be more productive and efficient, and the results for business processes should impact throughout the economy and the environment.

Connected products generate data that is being seen as a key source of competitive advantage, and the management and processing of that data is generating new challenges in the industrial environment.

The work to be presented looks into the framework of the adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the Industrial sector under industry 4.0 or smart manufacturing framework. This work is focused on the discussion around Artificial Intelligence as a driver for Industrial Process optimization, and looks into its link with process operators and people in the shop floor, and IIoT.

The paper includes a bibliometric analysis of the key topics around Artificial Intelligence under Industry 4.0 or Smart Manufacturing paradigm.

The main findings are related to the importance that the subject has adquired since 2017 in terms of published articles, and the complexity of the approach of the issue proposed by this work at the industrial environment.