I recently heard a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School argue that AI is going to make us MORE creative. His reasoning? AI will handle routine tasks and free up mental space for bigger, more innovative thinking.
I’m not sure I buy it. At least not yet.
With my students, I see it going both ways. Some use AI to get past the boring parts so they can focus on the creative decisions that actually matter. Others use AI as an excuse to stop thinking creatively altogether. Or maybe they haven’t figured out yet how to redirect that freed-up mental space into creative work. I honestly don’t know.
A teacher I work with had a group designing a solution for energy waste at their school. They used AI to generate a list of potential approaches, then spent two class periods debating which ones were actually feasible, combining ideas, and adding their own observations about their building. AI gave them a starting point, but all the creative problem-solving was theirs.
But I’ve also watched students ask AI to ‘create a presentation about renewable energy’ and just use whatever it spits out. No personal insight. No connection to what they’ve learned. No creative thinking at all.
So will AI make students more creative by handling routine work? Maybe. But only if they actually use that freed-up mental space for creative thinking instead of just coasting.
Students who use AI well for creative work treat AI suggestions as starting points, not endpoints. They bring their own experiences and perspectives to the work. They make deliberate choices about what to keep, what to change, and what to throw out completely. They understand that AI can help generate options, but humans make the creative decisions that matter.
The students who struggle are the ones who think AI’s first response is good enough. They’re not being creative. They’re just being efficient at avoiding creative work.
What I’m trying with my students is having them document their creative process when they use AI. What was your original idea? What did you ask AI? What did it suggest? What did you keep, change, or reject? How does your final work reflect your perspective?
This kind of reflection helps students see the difference between using AI as a creative tool and letting AI do their creative thinking for them.
AI can generate content. It can offer suggestions. It can help you get unstuck. But it can’t bring your personal experience, your perspective, or your authentic voice to creative work. When students understand that distinction, they stop seeing AI as a threat to their creativity and start seeing it as one tool among many.
What are you seeing with creativity in your classroom? Are students using AI to enhance their creative thinking, or to avoid it?
