Laser surface modification is a special and effective way of material surface treatment, which is widespread use in industrial production. This paper gives a compendium of the research and the development situation of laser surface modification, in particular, it focuses on several aspects of the following: laser surface hardening, laser fusing together, laser surface alloying and laser cladding, and its recent development status are also discussed. At last, the paper describes the existing problems and development prospect of laser surface modification.