Metacognitive cultural intelligence training in the age of generative artificial intelligence: A bibliometric review
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly used in culturally diverse workplaces and educational settings, yet its outputs may reproduce limited, stereotypical, or biased cultural assumptions. This review maps recent scholarship on metacognitive cultural intelligence (CQ), intercultural training, and GenAI-assisted learning and translates the available evidence into a training framework. A descriptive bibliometric review and critical integrative synthesis were conducted for publications dated from January 1, 2021, to July 27, 2026. The final bibliography comprised 58 bibliographically verified sources: 48 topical publications formed the analytical corpus and 10 methodological or indexing sources supported review reporting, evidence appraisal, deduplication, screening transparency, or source verification. Annual publication output in the retained topical corpus increased from one publication in 2021 to 17 in 2024, and 29 of the 48 publications (60.4%) appeared from 2024 onward. Only four publications (8.3%) directly addressed the focal GenAI–intercultural intersection. Accordingly, claims regarding specific training benefits should be interpreted as evidence-informed propositions derived primarily from adjacent CQ, AI-learning, metacognition, and cultural-bias literature rather than as established causal effects. The review proposes a five-component framework linking learner conditions, GenAI affordances, metacognitive regulation, developmental outcomes, and cross-cutting safeguards. It also specifies the evidential status of the proposed relationships, outlines training-design principles, provides an illustrative training scenario, and identifies priorities for testing culturally responsible human–AI learning systems.
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