Amino carbonyl derivatives are an important class of molecular backbones found in many pharmaceuticals and natural product molecules, meanwhile, they are also an essential kind of intermediates for the synthesis of many organic molecules. To develop simple and efficient method for the synthesis of structurally diversity α-amino carbonyl derivatives of great importance, the amination reactions of carbonyl α-position hydrocarbon bond in recent decades are classified and summarized based on the different activation patterns experienced by the reactions. These reactions are mainly divided into four categories: electrophilic amination, oxidative amination, halide mediated amination, and electrochemical amination.