Some sectors are already far ahead of others in the adoption of AI, with legal, academic, and health libraries already using the new technology for a range of activities from service enhancement to improving processes such as digitalisation and analysis work of physical archive material.

At last week’s CILIP Partners Knowledge Exchange, a wide-ranging discussion took place to discuss the status of AI adoption in the industry. Delegates were drawn from employers (CILIP Employer Partners), information schools (CILIP Learning Partners) and vendors (Supplier Partners).

Larger organisations, where data already plays a significant role in their work and service provision, have been using AI to enhance decision-making around staff allocation, as well as enhanced search and access.

Public libraries have also made forays into the AI sphere, but more on an individual level, such as using AI products to help with inspiration for social media posts, or as a basis for library activities and discussion.

Representatives reported using generative AI services such as ChatGPT for creating digital content, developing a voice on social media for consistent messaging, and using it as a way of thinking things through and exploring ideas, before creating something themselves.

Across the board, attendees of the forum were well informed on AI’s risks and cautious abouts its adoption and implementation.

Ethical questions around data access inevitably led to discussion around regulation and compliance issues around its practical applications from anti-racism work to AI’s status a medical device.

Its use to generate long form text, that students have already been doing, will disrupt traditional assessment methods such as essay-writing, and create issues around citations and sourcing, not only in terms of copyright, but also in terms of accuracy.

As a result, some academic libraries are already producing training materials for students to use this technology, much like guidance around Wikipedia or the internet for research in previous decades.

AI creates a complex set of issues for information and library professionals to come to terms with.

There are already a suite of tools in varying degrees of development and implementation, that can be both standalone or integrated into current systems, with no standardisation of terms or features.

Conceptually, AI brings together tough questions around the nature of intelligence, and how this kind of ‘intelligence’ accesses large datasets, with ethical and legal implications around this access.

The libraries and knowledge management sectors need to be brought up to speed and collaborate further to ensure staff are supported in their day-to-day duties, and empowered to share their knowledge with their users, and their colleagues.