Augment or replace? AI implementation and employee job insecurity

Purpose This research aims to investigate how front-of-house artificial intelligence (AI) implementation (human replacement vs human augmentation) affects job insecurity among tourism and hospitality employees. Design/methodology/approach Three scenario-based experiments were conducted with hospitality and tourism employees from the United States and the United Kingdom. Data were collected via Prolific. ANOVA and PROCESS modeling were adopted to analyze the data. Findings The results demonstrate that AI implementation significantly increased job insecurity either directly or indirectly through perceived threats to identity value. Human replacement led to greater job insecurity than human augmentation. Although organizational support did not significantly moderate the mediation of threats to identity value, technology readiness played a significant moderating role. Originality/value This research provides novel evidence that front-of-house AI intended for human augmentation, as well as human replacement, increases job insecurity among employees, and that organizational support does not moderate this effect.