How do individuals’ concerns about artificial intelligence affect their job crafting? Evidence from the Chinese hospitality sector

Despite growing research on the extensive deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in hospitality settings and its influence on employees, empirical evidence on how AI awareness shapes their behaviors, particularly job crafting, remains lacking. Building on conservation of resources theory and achievement motivation theory, we propose a theoretical model to explore how employee–AI collaboration and work withdrawal function as mediators connecting AI awareness to job crafting, and further analyze the moderating effects of approach/avoidance motivation. Data were obtained via questionnaires administered at three distinct time points to 453 frontline employees of 26 hospitality firms (i.e., hotels and restaurants) throughout China. Path analysis was conducted using Mplus 8.3 to test the research hypotheses. The results demonstrated that (1) AI awareness positively promoted job crafting by enhancing employee–AI collaboration, (2) AI awareness inhibited job crafting by inducing work withdrawal, and (3) approach/avoidance motivation moderated the above effects. Theoretically, this study advances AI–work research by positioning AI awareness as a novel antecedent of job crafting and revealing the dual pathways and boundary conditions through which it shapes job crafting. Practically, managers should assess employees’ AI awareness and adopt targeted measures to foster employee–AI collaboration while reducing work withdrawal. Training and incentive systems should strengthen approach motivation and curb avoidance motivation to better harness AI’s potential for job crafting.