With increasing the demands for machining hard and brittle materials, thermally assisted machining (TAM) has been evolved over the years. TAM includes a heat source which elevate the workpiece temperature of cutting zone to enable the cutting easily. Various heat sources has been introduced and the main research activity in TAM have been focused on laser assisted machining (LAM) at turning and milling operations largely because of the beam controllability and easy of beam delivery. This paper tries to deliver an overview of research trend in the general area of TAM with focused on LAM. Both experimental and numerical studies such as, thermal modeling, material removal mechanism, machinability, and surface integrities will be reviewed. And finally, future research directions will be addressed.