Breast cancer stands as a predominant health concern for women globally. As mammography is the primary screening tool for breast cancer detection, improving the detection of breast cancer at screening could save more lives. This mammography review paper comprehensively reviews computer-aided techniques during a specific time frame for the segmentation and classification of microcalcification, evaluating image processing, machine learning, and deep learning techniques. The review is meticulously carried out, adhering closely to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. This article focuses on mammographic breast cancer detection approaches based on automated systems, discussed chronologically from 1970 through 2023. This article encompasses the breadth of artificial intelligence-based methods from the most primitive to the most sophisticated models. Image processing and machine learning-based methods are comprehensively reviewed. Evaluating a deep learning architecture based on self-extracted features for classification tasks demonstrated outstanding performance. Large-scale datasets required for a broader and in-depth analysis of novel methods for breast cancer detection are also discussed in this article. This research work is aligned with the United Nations’ sustainability development goals.