The laser/arc hybrid welding process is a new process combining the laser beam and the arc as welding heat source. The laser beam and arc influence and assist one another. By application of hybrid welding, synergistic effects are achievable, and disadvantage of the respective processes can be compensated. The laser-arc hybrid welding process has good potential to extend the field of applications of laser technology, and provide significant improvements in weld quality and process efficiency in manufacturing applications. This review analyses the recent advances in the fundamental understanding of hybrid welding processes using the works of the data base of Web of Science (SCI-Expanded) since the 2000 year. The research activity on the hybrid welding has been become more actively since 2006, especially in China, presenting the most research papers in the world. Since the hybrid welding process was adopted in manufacturing of the automobile in Europe in the early of 2000`s, its adopting is widely expanded in the field of manufacturing of automobile, ship building, steel construction and the other various industry. The hybrid welding process is expected to advance toward higher productivity, higher precision, higher reliability through the mixing of high power and flexible fiber laser or disk laser and digitalized pulsed arc source.