Notes of encouragement: Experiencing audience reception of AI-generated messages

Students explored using generative AI to create relational messages as well as audience reactions to both human-created and AI-created notes of encouragement. The activity helped students understand the practical, relational, and ethical implications of incorporating AI into communication tasks. By the end of the activity, students could discern between human- and AI-generated content, assess AI communication's strengths and weaknesses, and evaluate the emotional impact of AI-created messages. The exercise highlighted AI's utility for certain tasks but emphasized the need for human oversight, particularly for tasks requiring emotional depth. The results underscore the importance of educating future communicators about AI's capabilities, ethics, and limitations.