AI as co-intelligence in action: Designing intercultural communication games with AI

As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly enters communication classrooms without adequate pedagogical guidance, instructors face a critical teaching challenge: how to incorporate intentional AI use into student learning so that it enhances rather than replaces critical thinking. To address this challenge, this teaching idea introduces AI as a co-intelligence framework—a pedagogical design that positions students as experts within a communication discipline, who must guide AI using dialogic prompting. The framework rests on three pillars: domain knowledge expertise, AI literacy, and metacognitive reflection. This article demonstrates the framework through an intercultural communication implementation. The model can be applied to communication courses that require students to translate theory into application in ways that preserve disciplinary thinking and ensure transparent AI use. Courses: Courses that ask students to apply domain knowledge to complete class projects while working with AI tools. The teaching idea illustrates the framework through an implementation in an introductory intercultural communication course, but it can be adapted for other courses such as business, organizational, and health communication. Objectives: Through this assignment, students will: (1) use AI tools in a critical way by crafting and revising prompts grounded in course concepts; (2) evaluate AI-generated content for conceptual accuracy, nuance, and ethical representation; (3) design an educational game that translates communication theory into a concrete training activity for a specific audience; and (4) reflect on human–AI collaboration to distinguish critical AI use from passive reliance on AI.