The paper presents findings from an empirical research study of facts, opinions, and attitudes toward AI tools in Croatian higher education (HE) libraries, key stakeholders in Croatian HE. The findings indicate that AI has made moderate inroads into these libraries, but there's potential for more extensive use in tasks and specific library operations that could reduce librarians' workload and improve communication with library users. At the time of the study, librarians adopted a rational approach, hesitating to implement AI until its usefulness and safety were proven. The research study also revealed a surprisingly minimal impact of AI on the teaching component of HE, despite the growing number of AI tools applicable in HE teaching and research worldwide. At this stage of AI development, more research studies are needed on future implementations of AI in the daily practice of Croatian HE libraries.