Agricultural industries are adopting emerging artificial intelligence (AI) tools to improve economic efficiency and sustainability. Therefore, educators must prepare the future agricultural workforce to have basic AI literacy. One strategy to meet this need is by integrating AI tools into college courses. In fall of 2025, we integrated AI in three course sections of Effective Oral Communications, a 3-credit undergraduate course at [University] in the [College of Agriculture], with the goal to enhance students’ public speaking confidence and AI literacy. During the course, students developed, practiced, and delivered informative, demonstrative, and persuasive speeches. For each of these speeches, AI was incorporated in three ways: (1) students practiced utilizing Meta Quest VR headsets and an AI speech simulation software called Ovation; (2) students were taught prompting skills and were required to use AI chatbots to develop speaking outlines; and (3) AI was used to provide each student with a peer feedback summary. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the student experience of the AI integration. Data were collected in the form of 137 student reflection assignment submissions and six focus groups. The reflection assignments were one-to-two-page written reflections that students submitted for each of the three speeches. Each of the six focus groups included approximately eight students and were ran by an external moderator who used a semi-structured interview guide. Focus group transcriptions and student reflections were coded using deductive coding and a priori codes established from existing literature. Two coders worked together to establish intercoder reliability and to identify themes. Findings indicated a mixed student perception of AI integration. Some participants were interested in utilizing AI and found it valuable, while some students were skeptical and avoidant citing personal concerns. We provide implications to enhance the practice and scholarship of AI integration into higher education.