Human Capital Readiness for Cloud–AI–Data Center Ecosystems: A Bibliometric Review
The expansion of cloud platforms, artificial intelligence (AI)-driven applications, and data center infrastructure has increased the need for workers and organizations that can operate, interpret, and govern complex digital ecosystems. However, research on human capital readiness for cloud–AI–data center ecosystems remains fragmented across technology adoption, digital skills, education, workforce development, and human resource management (HRM). This study maps the intellectual structure, thematic development, and research gaps of this field through a bibliometric review of 783 Scopus-indexed journal articles published between 2010 and 2025. Biblioshiny/R Bibliometrix and VOSviewer were used to conduct performance analysis and science mapping, including annual publication trends, keyword co-occurrence, thematic mapping, co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and country collaboration analysis. The findings show that publication activity increased after 2019 and accelerated after 2023, indicating growing attention to digital workforce readiness in the AI era. The analyses reveal a divide between technology-oriented studies on AI, Industry 4.0, cloud computing, and digital transformation and human-centered studies on digital skills, literacy, competencies, and workforce readiness. Co-citation and bibliographic coupling results show that the field is shaped by technology adoption, behavioral readiness, strategic capability, future-of-work research, work psychology, and education-based digital competency development. Country collaboration patterns indicate that Asia-Pacific scholarship remains uneven despite the region’s growing role in digital infrastructure expansion. This study contributes by repositioning human capital readiness as a strategic HR capability linking digital talent development, HR analytics, and workforce planning.