AI Laboratories and the Future Academic Library: A Framework for Assessing User Perceptions and Acceptance of AI-Driven Services in the Indian Institutes of Management

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping teaching, research and scholarly communication, and several Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are now building AI schools, centres and laboratories. This paper examines the importance and future role of AI laboratories in IIMs and asks what this institutional shift means for users' perceptions and acceptance of AI-driven library services. Drawing on official institutional sources and recent literature on AI in academic libraries and technology acceptance, the paper (i) maps AI laboratories and AI-focused units across the 21 IIMs, identifying four IIMs (Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Lucknow and Udaipur) with an identified AI laboratory or unit; (ii) proposes an AI Lab–Library research-support framework; and (iii) sets out a research design for assessing user perceptions at IIM Udaipur, covering awareness, perceived usefulness, ease of use, trust, privacy and ethical concerns, satisfaction and behavioral intention. The paper is conceptual and design-oriented and reports no primary survey results. It argues that AI laboratories should be treated as research-support infrastructure that creates new scholarly information needs, that libraries are well placed to provide a human-centred and ethical layer between AI infrastructure and users, and that acceptance cannot be assumed from the availability of technology alone. Practical recommendations for IIM libraries and testable propositions for future empirical work are provided.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; academic libraries; AI-driven library services; user perception; technology acceptance; AI laboratory; IIM Udaipur; research support; responsible AI.