This special issue (SI) entitled 'Smart and intelligent optical materials for sensing applications', published by Luminescence, Wiley focuses on the recent advancement of smart and intelligent optical materials for the fabrication of sensor technology for use in numerous fields such as pharmaceutical, biomedical, and environmental. Also, detailed highlights of their prospects in the fields, for example, of personalized health care, wearable devices, and plant stress monitoring are given. This SI includes 46 peer-reviewed articles, of which 15 are reviews written by well established researchers with expertise in the field, and the remaining 31 are research articles from world-leading scientists.