Challenge or hindrance? Artificial intelligence literacy and appraisals driving job crafting and engagement among hotel sales and marketing employees

Purpose As artificial intelligence (AI) moves from demos to routine hotel tasks, managers encounter a paradox: adoption speeds up, yet role clarity and engagement typically lag. Therefore, this study examines how AI appraisals and AI literacy influence job crafting and, ultimately, work engagement among hotel sales and marketing (S&M) staff within the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework. Design/methodology/approach We examined cross-sectional survey data from hotel S&M staff (N = 301) using variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Measurement quality was achieved, allowing a reliable interpretation of the structural model. Findings Challenge appraisal is positively associated with all crafting dimensions, whereas hindrance appraisal shows small positive relationships suggesting possible compensatory coping. Each crafting dimension predicts engagement, with task being the strongest, followed by relational and cognitive. AI literacy is positively associated with task, relational, and cognitive crafting, is not directly associated with work engagement, and is linked to work engagement through job crafting. Practical implications The study offers an actionable framework to support employee engagement in AI-mediated hospitality work by disaggregating job crafting and integrating challenge-hindrance appraisals. Originality/value The study contributes to AI-JD-R and job crafting research by integrating AI appraisals and AI literacy with task, cognitive, and relational crafting to explain work engagement in the underexplored hotel S&M context.