question: The COVID‐19 pandemic that began in March 2020 continues in many countries. The ongoing pandemic makes early diagnosis a crucial part of efforts to prevent the spread of SARS‐CoV‐2 infections. As such, the development of a rapid, reliable, and low‐cost technique with increased sensitivity for detection of SARS‐CoV‐2 is an important priority of the scientific community. At present, nucleic acid‐based techniques are primarily used as the reference approach for the detection of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. However, in several cases, false positive results have been observed with these techniques. Due to the drawbacks associated with existing techniques, the development of new techniques for the diagnosis of COVID‐19 is an important research activity. We provide an overview of novel diagnostic methods for SARS‐CoV‐2 diagnosis that integrate photonic technology with artificial intelligence. Recent developments in emerging diagnostic techniques based on the principles of advanced molecular spectroscopy and microscopy are considered. [Image: see text]