AISI 1020 carbon steel is a potential substrate material for cladding in the present era due to its wide applications in various engineering fields. The key features, advantages and limitations of various cladding methods to improve the poor tribological properties of AISI 1020 carbon steel using a suitable heat source such as laser beam, plasma arc and tungsten inert gas (TIG) arc is described in this paper. Researchers used different ceramic particles (oxides, carbides, nitrides and borides of metallic elements) as well as high entropy alloy (HEA) powders for the fabrication of single and overlapped tracks over the surface of AISI 1020 steel. The key findings of the latest work of the researchers in this particular field of research are discussed here. Moreover, The in-situ synthesis mechanism of new metal compounds in the cladded layer as well as monitoring of molten pool thermal history while cladding have positive effects in terms of improved tribological properties of substrate and the same is discussed in this paper. This paper will contribute as a reference article for the researchers working in the field of composite layer deposition over AISI 1020 carbon steel surface through different cladding methods.