ABA and the independent bookstores we represent know how important authors and illustrators are. We want to read, promote, and sell books by humans — creators who spin their human experience into gold, something that AI can never do. ABA champions these creators and advocates for strong support of copyright and intellectual property laws — the foundation of the book industry. We understand the ways AI is changing the world but regulating it and fighting for the things that shouldn’t change should be a priority. There’s a lot at stake for our industry, and for readers.
ABA recognizes that as a trade association we play an important role in helping our members navigate the new waters that AI presents for their businesses. From our vantage point, we can see the serious concerns about AI. We share those concerns. We can see the opportunities AI presents to help level the playing field and ensure competitive and sustainable small businesses. And we recognize the contradictions of a tool that both threatens equity and access and creates opportunities for it. We have created these principles to guide us in our support of members to ensure that we navigate these waters carefully, intentionally, and in alignment with our values as much as possible, and we are prioritizing advocacy initiatives related to AI on our members’ behalf to that same end.
We strongly advocate for regulation of AI and in the meantime hope that our guidelines and efforts will help reduce risks, inform members, and support responsible practice. Failing to discuss and educate members about one of the most significant disruptions our industry has ever experienced would be a gross failure of duty. In accordance with our Ends Policies, ABA will continue to ensure that our members have the necessary resources, skills, and technology they need to run successful businesses, including information about AI; continue to advocate for legal and regulatory policies that reflect the interests of independent bookstores, including those related to AI; and continue to do all of this in a manner that aligns with our values to the best of our abilities.
Independent bookstores are a diverse group. Individuals within our channel will have different views on AI. As a trade association we support our members’ decision about if or how to use AI. As an organization that champions free speech, we recognize that choice as an extension of speech. ABA believes strongly that independent bookstores, and the entire book industry, needs to talk about AI from a place of concern and curiosity, without unproductive harassment or dismissal.
As AI is increasingly integrated in the processes and platforms that ABA is dependent on to conduct business in the world, and as we recognize some of the opportunities AI presents to better serve our members, we are using AI and are doing so within the following framework:
ABA will:
- Use AI in a limited manner proportionate to goals, values, and context
- Prioritize humans over AI, never replacing staff with AI
- Require humans to initiate and oversee AI usage
- Be transparent about AI usage
- Be mindful of, and work to mitigate, bias and inaccuracy in our AI usage
- Use AI securely and legally
ABA will not:
- Allow books written or illustrated by AI in ABA programming or promotions for booksellers (not knowingly)
- Use AI in the creation of any marketing assets, social media content or images, merchandise, or other materials intended for use by our members.
- Use AI to create initial ideas
- Input member information or data, staff information or data, or proprietary information into AI
ABA currently uses AI for purposes such as:
- Financial and data analysis and synthesis
- Development coding and QA testing for IndieCommerce but only in a limited capacity and only if initiated, overseen, and reviewed by our developers, and reviewed by a second human
- Stacks, the BookWeb.org Chatbot to help members find resources. Stacks only provides answers informed by our approved Bookweb.org and BTW content we’ve given it access to. Like any AI tool, it can still make mistakes, so we review its answers regularly.
- Brainstorming
- Researching (as long as it’s verified)
- Automating systems, in a limited capacity
And these lists will change as AI, our industry, and the world continue to evolve.
Summary
Whether bookstores opt in or opt out to using AI, there is an important role for all of us to play in building a future for the book industry in the age of AI that is transparent, ethical, equitable, and grounded in respect for human creativity. The future may be uncertain, and the road may be rough, but critical thinking and an open, creative, constructive conversation is the way forward.
Call to Action
We call on booksellers to educate themselves about AI — informed not by clickbait, social media feeds, or panic, but by research, a variety of viewpoints, credible primary sources, and thoughtful consideration and critical thinking. We hope members will make decisions for themselves about if/how they will use AI, respect the need for open dialogue in our industry and the right to choose within our community, and join us in our advocacy work to regulate AI. ABA will be here to support them all along the way.
For more information see:
Important Notes
ABA does not consent to any use of the content on this website towards training any AI models.
This policy was last updated October 2026 and will be reviewed and updated quarterly.