Some AI systems employ simulated representations of real-world scenarios, and these simulations are sometimes called ‘imagination’ in the engineering literature. Can imagination be attributed to AI systems? This paper will consider this question from a conceptual engineering perspective. Some key properties of imagination are identified, which characterise imagination’s relation to other mental states and its epistemic function. Simulations run by AI systems resemble human imagination with respect to these properties only partially. Thus a purely descriptive approach, which aims to address the question of AI imagination by identifying the conditions that delineate our present concept of imagination, has limited prospects. Nevertheless, there are normative reasons to countenance AI imagination when simulation-based AI systems are seen as possible models of human intelligence. Some suggestions for adopting an AI-friendly concept of imagination will be offered.