Innovative Practice and Learning Effectiveness of Integrating AI Marketing into SPA Brand Courses: A Case Study of a Five-Year Junior College Program in Cosmetics Application Management

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), digital marketing and brand management have significantly influenced talent cultivation in the beauty and SPA industry. Traditional skill-oriented vocational education is no longer sufficient to meet the demands of industrial digital transformation. This study explored the innovative integration of AI marketing into a SPA brand management course and examined students’ learning experiences, professional competency development, and AI literacy within a five-year junior college cosmetics application and management program in Taiwan. An exploratory mixed-methods teaching practice study with a single-group course implementation was adopted. During the first half of the semester, traditional lecture-based instruction was implemented, followed by AI-integrated Project-Based Learning (PBL) activities in the second half of the course. Students applied AI tools to virtual SPA brand development, marketing copywriting, presentation design, visual content creation, and video production. Participants included 29 students. Quantitative data were collected using a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire consisting of three dimensions: AI tool learning, AI application scenarios, and future expectations of AI. Qualitative data were obtained from stage-based student interviews and reflective feedback collected at the beginning, middle, and final stages of the course. The findings indicated that all three dimensions achieved mean scores above 4.0, reflecting highly positive student perceptions toward AI-integrated SPA brand instruction. Among the dimensions, AI tool learning demonstrated the highest performance, particularly in AI-assisted copywriting and presentation design. Reliability analysis showed high internal consistency across all dimensions. Qualitative findings further revealed that students gradually progressed from initial unfamiliarity with AI toward practical application, workplace imagination, and critical reflection on AI ethics and information credibility. This study highlights the potential of integrating AI marketing into SPA brand courses to enhance students’ digital application abilities, contextual learning experiences, and career-oriented thinking, while supporting the development of AI literacy and curriculum innovation in vocational education.