Thriving in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Study of Academic Librarians’ Perceptions and Apprehensions for Smart Libraries in Pakistan

Artificial intelligence (AI) is still emerging in libraries and offers significant opportunities to enhance user services. To prepare librarians for AI-enabled environments, it is essential to assess their awareness, usage, attitudes, and perceived implementation challenges. Earlier Pakistani studies primarily examined librarians’ perceptions of AI, conceptual issues, or SWOT analyses. This study provides a comprehensive quantitative assessment of AI awareness, actual usage, attitudes, implementation challenges, and future expectations among 200 university librarians in the Punjab, Pakistan. The findings indicate that librarians have moderate AI awareness and generally positive attitudes, but AI adoption remains limited due to inadequate funding, insufficient training, privacy concerns, and job security issues. By providing current empirical evidence from a developing-country context and offering practical recommendations for staff development, institutional support, and strategic AI implementation, this study contributes to the literature on AI adoption in academic libraries and the transition toward smart libraries.