As an advanced manufacturing technology, laser processing has been widely used in many industries such as instrument and apparatus, aerospace, medical and health community, and automobile manufacturing due to its powerful processing ability. However, there are still some shortcomings in laser processing, such as unclear processing mechanism, difficult real-time monitoring and unable to feedback on the processing state in time, and lack of classification and characterization of the processing structures or defects. The research shows that it is a reasonable technical solution to combine the detection technology with laser processing to regulate the process. As a dynamic nondestructive detection technology, acoustic emission technology has been proved to be an efficient and flexible detection method among various technologies. Combining acoustic emission technology with laser processing to realize online detection of laser processing has become a research hotspot at home and abroad. In this paper, the research status of introducing acoustic emission technology into laser processing by domestic and foreign scholars is reviewed. The characteristics of acoustic emission technology are briefly described. And the acoustic emission technology principle of laser processing, the laser processing research based on acoustic emission analysis method and the application of acoustic emission technology in laser processing are emphatically analyzed. Furthermore, the future development direction of acoustic emission technology in laser processing is prospected based on the current shortcomings.