Redesigning an Intercultural Communication Course to Build Power Skills for an AI-Augmented Global Economy

This case study reports a full redesign of an undergraduate Intercultural Communication seminar in Toronto, repositioning the course to foreground power skills as durable differentiators in an AI-mediated economy. The redesign shifts an asynchronous distance format into a seminar-based model with weekly applied learning, scaffolded assessments, and a four-week COIL partnership with a Turkish university to create authentic intercultural collaboration under real constraints. Students practice creativity, curiosity, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, decision-making, verbal and nonverbal communication, cross-cultural competence, and self-reflexivity, while also learning to use AI tools in ways that remain accountable to disciplinary standards. Assignments include debates, peer assessment, collaborative cross-cultural projects, and critical autoethnographic narratives that surface bias, ethnocentrism, conflict resolution, and face needs. The session offers a replicable blueprint for humanities-led pedagogy that develops empathetic communication and ethical judgment while still preparing students for hybrid human–AI workplaces. A link to a video of Nitin Deckha's presentation can be found below in the Additional Files section.