Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from a background convenience to an everyday composing and learning partner. For communication centers, this shift is less a threat than an opportunity to become campus “AI literacy hubs” that help students and faculty use AI tools responsibly while preserving the human coaching that supports rhetorical judgment, audience adaptation, and ethical decision-making. This article reports findings from an exploratory qualitative survey of communication center stakeholders (N = 30) examining (a) how center operations have changed because of AI and (b) what challenges AI presents. Using a multistage, constant-comparative coding process, we identified themes related to operational change (e.g., minimal change to date, increased staff training and dialogue, instructional uses such as examples and prompts, formal AI education in programming, and shifts in consultation conversations as students arrive with AI-influenced drafts). We also identified key challenges (e.g., consultant training and ethics, authenticity of student work, potential impacts on student engagement and service use, and uncertainty about AI’s longer-term effects). Drawing on these themes, we present practical, center-ready strategies for integrating AI into communication center work, including prompt coaching, consultation guidelines, faculty partnerships that incentivize human interaction, professional development for staff and instructors, learning communities to coordinate institutional responses, and targeted applications such as speech-anxiety support, AI-assisted speech evaluation, and bias detection in session documentation. Overall, we argue that communication centers are uniquely positioned to guide AI-mediated communication practices with both innovation and care, keeping the human in the loop while adapting services for an AI-shaped future.

Keywords: communication centers; artificial intelligence; generative AI; AI literacy; public speaking support; writing and speaking consultations; higher education pedagogy; ethical AI use

How to Cite:

Strawser, M. G., Cuny, K., Apostel, S., Carpenter, R., Dvorak, K., Ellis Harrison, E. & Prentiss, S., (2026) “The Centrality of the Center (AI Edition): Practical Strategies for Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Communication Centers  ”, Communication Center Journal 12(1).