What makes hospitality and tourism students AI-ready? Must-have and should-have AI literacy competencies for self-efficacy and future career readiness

The study conceptualizes AI literacy as a multidimensional construct comprising conceptual, evaluative, applied, and AI awareness dimensions, and proposes that these competencies influence future career readiness through AI self-efficacy. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the studied relationships. Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) was then employed to identify “must-have” competencies. The results indicate that applied AI literacy is the strongest predictor of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy, in turn, has a strong positive effect on future career readiness. NCA findings further reveal that conceptual, evaluative, and applied AI literacy are necessary conditions for the development of self-efficacy. Additionally, self-efficacy is identified as a necessary condition for achieving career readiness. This study contributes to the literature by validating AI literacy as a multidimensional construct in hospitality education. The findings offer important implications for curriculum design by emphasizing the need to balance foundational knowledge, and psychological readiness in preparing AI-ready graduates.