Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping UK Higher Education, placing growing pressure on Business Schools to embed AI meaningfully within teaching, assessment, and curriculum design. While institutional AI readiness is often framed through policies, infrastructure, and capability models, less attention has been given to how academics themselves perceive and experience readiness in practice. This paper argues that AI readiness in Business and Management education is not solely a structural or technical condition, but a capability construct shaped by educators’ confidence, pedagogical intent, professional identity, and perceptions of legitimacy and risk. Drawing on an extended Technology Acceptance Model and Liu’s scientific – technical - cultural framing of AI, the study adopts a qualitative design using semi-structured interviews with UK Business School academics. The research explores how theoretical readiness frameworks align with lived academic practice and identifies gaps between institutional strategy and pedagogical reality. The paper advances an acdemic-centred conceptualisation of AI readiness to inform more coherent and sustainable sector-wide integration.