A Comprehensive Survey of AI-Enabled 6G Wireless Networks: Applications, Enabling Technologies, and Research Challenges

The rapid evolution of wireless communication has increased the shift towards sixth generation (6G) networks, which are projected to deliver very high data rates, less than one millisecond latency, connectivity at mass scale, and pervasive intelligence. Although there are a few surveys on 6G, most of them are either technology-specific or overall, and they do not necessarily make a systematic connection to applications, enabling technologies, and research issues. This survey fills in that gap by providing the unified outlook on Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled 6G wireless networks. We consider weak areas like the emerging use of immersive extended reality, autonomous vehicles, holographic communication, smart healthcare, and Industry 5.0 and how they affect society and industry. Enabling technologies, such as terahertz communications, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, integrated sensing and communication, AI-native networks, and quantum communication, are discussed in a systematic way and combined with edge computing, the Internet of Everything, and digital twins. Finally, we determine the important open research issues in energy efficiency, security, scalability, interoperability, and ethics. This survey provides a systematic roadmap for researchers and practitioners to use in innovating AI-driven 6G wireless systems in the future.