When Allyson Kerr ’25 crafted her Oura Ring advertisement using a generative AI video creator, her 10-second recording sought to expand the company’s brand awareness among college students – specifically student-athletes.
“Given the very rigorous schedules that student-athletes endure daily, I thought the Oura ring would be a perfect tool for them to utilize to keep their health on track even during very hectic times,” says Kerr, who looked at Oura’s previous ads to get a feel for what the shots were like, camera positioning, and lighting. “I wanted to show how Oura can seamlessly integrate into student-athlete life.”
In her final ad, one scene depicted a pair of hands carrying a stack of textbooks – drawing the viewer’s gaze to an Oura Ring snug around one of the person’s fingers. In another segment, another college-aged individual worked diligently at a desk while wearing the ring. In a third clip, someone laced their sneakers on a track while donning one. The ad then transitioned to display four ring options available for purchase.
Reflecting on her time building the video with AI, she notes that there were both benefits and drawbacks.
“Some of the pros were minimal editing, no need to film any shots yourself, and professional looking quality if worded properly,” Kerr says. “For cons, it was difficult to get the software to cooperate with certain angles, glitches specifically with movements and actions (like tying shoes and running), extra smooth looking skin, and lack of creativity.”
Kerr, a Digital Communication major, is one of 20 students in Chris Morse Ph.D.’s “Message Design and Content Creation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” course. As a new offering this academic year, undergrads explore generative AI’s role in communication and how it can be implemented in design and message delivery. From examining foundational visual communication theories to covering audience analysis principles and strategies for crafting compelling narratives, the semester culminates with a generative media campaign where students select one of three project prompts: create an AI-generated 10-second ad for an existing brand; reimagine an existing advertisement for new platforms; or produce a strategic storytelling case study supported by a set of AI-generated visual prototypes.
Monitoring the evolving generative AI landscape and its influence on the communication industry, Morse is preparing undergrads for a changing workforce. He notes that the day is coming where this technology could replace certain roles within the field.
“What’s good from a media communications point is there will always be a need for people to have creative ideas for what’s needed,” says Morse, who serves as the Communication and Language Studies department chair and Communication professor within Bryant’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Adding AI to traditional workflows
It’s a Tuesday morning during the fall semester and Morse’s lesson is on storyboarding. Together, the professor and students explore why storyboarding is essential for visual storytelling, how to design a sequence of images that communicates an emotion or story beat, and how generative AI can be worked into the traditional storyboarding process.
“Generative AI image tools like Runway, Pika, Kaiber, and Adobe FireFly now allow creators to generate shots from text prompts or storyboard panels. Your prompts are going to be more detailed and elongated,” Morse shares while he brings Runway onto the projector.
Providing students with a tutorial of how to navigate the video generation model and write prompts to guide the generative AI creation process, the rest of their hour-long class is spent producing a short video and unpacking AI’s strengths and weaknesses.
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“Generative AI does not understand free objects, motion, or light,” Morse says, explaining that, from scene to scene, tone and color palette changes may occur unintentionally and character inconsistencies will come about unless individuals tell AI to create the same image character every time a new scene is introduced and what they want that character to be doing and where they want that character situated in the scene.
Coming into the course, all students had some generative AI experience — mostly with ChatGPT, Claude, and Bryant’s AskTupper — but none had used the technology for creating video content. One of the areas Morse stresses within the course is growing students’ communication vocabulary so they can analytically and critically express what makes a specific piece of multimedia content successful or unsuccessful.
Ethical considerations — including authenticity, transparency, and balancing human creativity with AI-generated content — are also woven throughout the curriculum, with Morse emphasizing it helps in preparing students to navigate and innovate in the evolving landscape of AI-driven communication. Since generative AI is still in its infancy, Morse also has undergrads keep a weekly blog with critiques, questions, and impressions of issues and content that emerge as they discuss the technology’s impact in real-time.
Teaching students to become AI experts
Undergrads’ generative media campaigns range from focusing on companies like Vans and Gatorade to Titleist and Starbucks. For Sammy Bergen ’26, the Marketing major chose to focus her project on Terry’s — a chocolate and confectionary brand most known for its Christmastime chocolate orange. Targeting her ad toward families and older adults, Bergen wanted to take the interactive product and elevate the idea of traditions and memories to resonate with viewers.
Bergen, who took Morse’s course as credit toward her Communication minor, notes that the course’s subject seemed interesting to learn about since AI has become a part of everyday life.
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“I also figured it would help me with marketing too. Marketers have started using AI for advertisements, and I thought that it could give me a head start on learning how to use AI properly,” says Bergen.
Now aware of how to use AI in a strategic and goal-focused way, Bergen was surprised to see just how rapidly AI changes in a short period of time. For instance, when she began the course, Sora wasn't popular, but by mid-semester, it became one of the most popular AI generators.
Looking back on her experience in the course, she comments on her increase in her understanding of AI.
“Taking this course was a great idea and can really help me in the future when I am working in marketing,” Bergen says.