Barry University’s College Of Arts & Sciences Launches New AI Course
By Andrea Briones
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the advertising industry, and Barry University is bringing that transformation into the classroom. A new course teaches students to combine creativity with AI tools to prepare for the future of advertising.
For years advertising agencies spent hundreds of hours brainstorming, designing and perfecting campaigns. Now, artificial intelligence can do some of that work in seconds.
Eighty-eight percent of marketers on both the agency and brand sides of advertising say they are actively using or piloting AI during the creative production processes, according to AdWeek.
Mahen Saverimuttu, an assistant professor of communication at Barry University, is preparing students for the rise of artificial intelligence through a new course called Advertising Creative and Intelligent Media (ADV-405).
The course that launched this fall aims to show students how to master human-AI collaboration by using AI tools to accelerate insight generation, scale personalized content and optimize campaigns.
“[Advertisements] are being produced on a scale and what I mean by scale is that they will be produced in vast quantities and fast. But I want students to not write themselves out of that process,” said Saverimuttu.
The idea for the class emerged six months ago from Saverimuttu’s frustration with teaching material that did not reflect an industry rapidly changing because of AI.
He wanted to prepare students for the realities they may face after graduation.
After getting the course approved by Vicente Berdayes, the communication department chair, Saverimuttu began by reading about industry trends and speaking with professionals.
During the summer, the department received a $500 grant, allowing Saverimuttu to explore several AI platforms and learn how each tool works.
Students like Rashiyah Wallace, a senior majoring in communications and media studies, are using platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Krea AI, Runway AI, ElevenLabs and Canva to produce their work.
“I think [the course] is helping me further a skill set that I already had because the professor is giving us resources that we usually wouldn’t have known about,” said Wallace. “I think it’s a bit more useful than if I were to explore it on my own.”
Throughout the semester, students are creating print and social media ads, banner and outdoor ads, video storyboards and AI-generated video, audio ads, mood boards and personalized creative assets.
While students are learning how AI is changing advertising today, Saverimuttu brings experience from an advertising career that began before those tools existed.
After earning his undergraduate degree in English economics and sociology, he began working as a journalist at The Island, a leading daily English-language newspaper in Sri Lanka.
While working at the publication, Saverimuttu helped an advertising agency employee place a last-minute ad—a favor that would later shape his career.
When he applied for a job in advertising, he walked into the interview and found the same person he had helped at the newspaper. The unexpected encounter launched Saverimuttu into advertising.
He later moved to the United States and earned a master’s degree in public relations from Purdue University. Now, he brings his experiences into the classroom as he teaches the new course.
The course is currently being offered as an elective to students who previously took Advertising Creative Strategy and Execution (ADV 401). Saverimuttu hopes that it becomes part of the required curriculum in the future.
“I've introduced AI into [all of my classes] in terms of research tools and I want students to learn them, so they don't think that it’s not relatable to them,” said Saverimuttu. “But I can't ignore what already works, which is the traditional stuff, so I've infused it in there. It's also harder to teach now because I'm used to teaching this [traditional] stuff, but now I have to think of new examples, so it’s difficult, but exciting.”
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