•State of the art review of Augmented Reality in industrial environments.•Augmented Reality applications to improve complexes process.•Wearable devices and markerless tracking are tendencies to improve Augmented Reality applications in production environments.•Considerations to implement Augmented Reality.•Future developments to improve Augmented Reality use in industrial environments. This article aims to evaluate the impact of Augmented Reality (AR) applicability and usefulness on real industrial processes by employing a systematic literature review (SLR). The SLR was performed in five digital libraries to identify articles and reviews concerning the AR applicability from 2012 to 2018. A patent search in Google’s patents database was also conducted, for the same period. This paper describes how AR has been applied, which industries are most interested in the technology, how the technology has been developed to meet industry needs, as well as the benefits and challenges of AR. This survey concludes by providing a starting point for companies interested in integrating AR into their processes and proposing future directions for AR developers and researchers.