Currently: Ph.d. student
Royal Shrestha
PhD Student, Strategic Communication
University of Colorado Boulder
How can we still trust what we see and feel online when we can’t always tell who or what created it?
I study how people answer that question, mostly in advertising, and mostly when nothing on the screen tells them.
About
I am a first-year PhD student at CU Boulder. Before this, I spent nearly a decade in Nepal’s startups and creative industries, working on problems that turned out to be less about business and more about communication.
Research
Selected working papers and publications
When Knowing It’s AI Isn’t Enough
A pre-registered experiment with 364 U.S. Gen Z participants. Trust in a virtual influencer and willingness to engage both dropped once people learned it was AI, and subtle and explicit labels did not differ.
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Rated by AI: Employee Motivation and Performance Under Algorithmic vs. Human
An experiment with 31 employees at a Kathmandu small business. None of the four hypotheses held, and the AI evaluator produced higher intrinsic motivation than the human one (d = 0.67).
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The “ChatGPT Effect”? Exploring AI-Assisted Creative Process in Strategic Communication
An experiment with 83 strategic communication students writing creative briefs with and without AI. AI raised brief quality and task self-efficacy and lowered cognitive engagement. Presented at AAA 2026. This study examines how AI assistance shapes creative brief writing among strategic communication students. In a between-subjects experiment (N = 83), we compare AI-assisted and non-AI-assisted […]
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Teaching
The Influencer Industry
Course Code: COMM 40123
An advanced seminar interrogating the structural mechanisms, labor dynamics, and cultural impact of the contemporary influencer ecosystem. Students critically engage with platform economics, algorithmic governance, and the commodification of authenticity.
Introduction to Research Methods and Insights
APRD 2004
I lead two recitation sections. Each session runs a group lab on an industry scenario, so students see that the path from question to instrument is nearly the same in an agency and in academia.
The Creator Economy
Course Code: COMM 30890
Exploring the historical evolution and current material realities of digital content creation. Focuses on monetization strategies, intellectual property in digital spaces, and the precarious nature of platform-dependent creative labor.