Marketing Strategy Capstone Preps Seniors for AI Landscape

To prepare students for that future, Emmanuel faculty are always updating coursework to reflect the modern world and ensure that students are immersed in innovative, forward-thinking programs. That way, students aren’t just graduating with expertise on what’s new in their field now: they have the creative mindset required to see what’s coming next – and lead the charge.

Associate Professor of Marketing Dr. Jing Yang’s “Marketing Strategy” Capstone course is one such example. In the marketing field, which Dr. Yang says is especially positioned to benefit from the rapid growth of Generative AI, it’s crucial for students to explore applications of that technology, so she made AI the core driver of the final project in the course.

“It’s extremely important they know this so that they’re prepared for the job market. They need to know how to use it – for efficiency and productivity of their work – and they need to know the risks associated with it,” Dr. Yang said.

The project has tasked students with using AI-powered marketing tools to help support a local business’s efforts in marketing automation, customer engagement and more. They’ve already received hands-on experience using AI directly for things like search engine optimization and content creation.

Senior marketing majors Deanna Christmas ’25, Lily Meglio ’25 – and Savannah Pimentel ’25 – (who is a Communications and Marketing dual major) are teamed up on the project, and fully immersed in all the knowledge they could need on AI – like the wide variety of programs available – Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini and more – and the responsibility that businesses have to use these tools ethically.

“It feels like we have a head start compared to everyone else,” Pimentel said, “and working alongside a real client has been a super cool experience.”

With the use of those AI tools and their four-year foundation of marketing knowledge, the trio has been supporting Hillside Harvest Hot Sauce – a local hot sauce company with a small team – with efficiency and productivity in creation of graphics, social media captions and podcast scripts.

“There’s so many ways to use it. [As students] things have always been presented to us, but now we get to share it with them and teach them the right ways to use it,” Christmas said.

On April 22nd, each group in the capstone class will get to present their work to Hillside Harvest founder Kamaal Jarrett and provide their recommendations and guidelines directly.

With this in-depth AI marketing practice and experience working with a real client under their belts, Christmas, Meglio and Pimentel are feeling optimistic about coming across AI in the workforce.

Not only do they know how to interact with it and get the best out of it in a work setting, Meglio explained, they also have a unique perspective which is fundamental to Emmanuel’s focus as a mission-based college.

“We’re aware of how it’s been abused and how it’s been used to make improvements – we’ve seen the line that’s drawn between the wrong and right ways to handle AI in a business…and I plan to use that knowledge in my career,” she added.

Dr. Yang is well-informed from her own research about how Generative AI is expected to impact the marketing world. Last year, she presented her approach to measuring the productivity and effectiveness of generative AI-powered ads at the American Marketing Association (AMA) Conference. Implementing the AI coursework into her teaching has been a first for Dr. Yang this semester - but she plans to continue using it as a core part of her instruction.