If Artificial Intelligence (AI) threatens to stifle our personal creativity, can it also be harnessed to enhance it? The answer is a resounding yes—but only if we use it wisely and intentionally.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): as a Tool for Creativity & Design Thinking

Used strategically, AI can amplify creative and design thinking. It excels at rapidly analyzing patterns, uncovering hidden connections, and generating diverse perspectives, allowing for deeper exploration of complex challenges. However, its true value depends on active human participation. Without engagement to refine, interpret, and challenge AI-driven insights, creativity risks becoming automated rather than truly innovative.

The key to unlocking AI’s potential lies in how we interact with it. As Stanford creativity expert Jeremy Utley notes, the distinction between treating AI as a mere tool versus a teammate is profound. When we engage AI as a collaborator, it can dramatically improve our creative output. The secret lies in prompting AI to ask questions, challenge our assumptions, and expand our thinking.

How to Amplify Your Creative Capabilities

Drawing from our research into innovative problem-solving and our experience teaching clients how to apply creative thinking in practice, here are our guidelines for using AI to enhance—not replace—your creative and critical thinking. These steps help balance personal growth with achieving strong results:

Click through to tirian.com or LinkedIn to see the full article and how to use AI in each stage of a design thinking process.

 

1. Enquire with AI: to frame, define, and empathise

Challenge existing assumptions and broaden your inquiry beyond familiar boundaries.

  • Prompt AI to ask questions – AI should help surface new perspectives rather than just answering predefined questions.
  • Uncover hidden biases – Let AI expose overlooked areas in your reasoning and introduce alternative viewpoints.
  • Synthesize key insights – Use AI to consolidate broad ideas into a core problem statement incorporating essential factors.
  • Compare diverse sources – AI can scan multiple datasets to provide insights not immediately visible through conventional research.
  • Ensure problem alignment – AI-driven analysis can refine your problem statement, ensuring it addresses all critical component.>

2. Explore with AI: to Ideate

Generate ideas freely without early judgment. AI can help push creative boundaries and highlight unexpected connections.

  • Encourage free thinking – AI can suggest unconventional associations that might spark innovative ideas.
  • Scan vast datasets – AI can pull insights from multiple sources and industries, expanding possibilities.
  • Identify hidden connections – AI can link seemingly unrelated concepts, often revealing valuable insights.
  • Expand conceptual frameworks – Ask AI for metaphors, analogies, or creative thought exercises to explore ideas differently.
  • Avoid early filtering – Allow AI to generate widely, leaving evaluation for later stages..>

3. Solve with AI: to Highlight Solutions

Collaborate with AI to refine solutions rather than settling for the first workable idea.

  • Compare AI-generated solutions – Evaluate AI insights alongside your own to identify gaps or overlooked opportunities.
  • Stress-test ideas – Use AI to anticipate potential flaws, unintended consequences, or implementation challenges.
  • Refine and optimize – AI can offer counterarguments, case studies, and industry comparisons to fine-tune your approach.
  • Expand across disciplines – Look at AI-generated solutions from different industries for fresh perspectives.
  • Ensure practicality – AI can predict implementation barriers and offer optimization techniques..>

4. Apply with AI: to Prototype and Implement 

Use AI for prototyping, testing, and iteration while ensuring human oversight remains central to refinement.

  • Scenario planning – Simulate different conditions to assess viability under various constraints.
  • Rapid iteration – Make adjustments quickly and refine your approach based on AI feedback.
  • User feedback integration – AI can analyze data trends and responses to fine-tune implementation.
  • Adaptability testing – AI can highlight areas where solutions need modification for long-term success.
  • Contextual refinement – Final decisions should always align with human intuition, creativity, and strategic goals.

 

Maximizing Human Creativity

AI can accelerate and deepen our insights, but only if we remain active participants in the process. Relying entirely on AI leads to homogenized, uninspired solutions. Instead, we must use AI to stretch our thinking, not shortcut it.

Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky introduced the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), describing tasks a learner cannot complete independently but can achieve with support. You can apply this principle when interacting with AI—providing context on your knowledge level and asking AI to help expand your understanding.

When used intentionally, AI becomes a powerful enabler of creative and design thinking, helping to surface connections we might have missed, accelerate new insights, and drive action on fresh ideas. To preserve a strong learning mindset, it’s essential to engage AI selectively—treating it as a guide, not a substitute, ensuring independent thinking and cognitive growth remain central to the process.

The future belongs to those who can harness both human ingenuity and artificial intelligence—together.

Article by Andrew Grant (C) 

 

The AI Creative Challenge: How Leaders Can Stay Ahead (series)

AI is transforming the way we approach problem-solving and innovation, but where does human creativity fit in? This series of articles covers the following key areas that require investigation:

Part 1: The impact of AI on creative thinking

  • AI Aces Creative Intelligence (CQ). Covers the relationship between artificial intelligence and Creative Intelligence (CQ). Asks: Can AI truly master the CQ test, and if so, does this diminish the need for human creative involvement?
  • Is AI Blocking our Creativity? Addresses a provocative challenge: Is AI an additional barrier that can stifle personal creativity & innovation?

Part 2: Optimizing AI in creative thinking

  • The AI Utilization Dial: Maximizing Creativity Without Losing Control. Explores when to integrate AI into creative thinking while maintaining a strong focus on personal ingenuity, ensuring alignment with specific goals and desired outcomes.
  • How to Use AI for Better Results in Creative and Design Thinking. How to collaborate with AI for better creative thinking, design thinking, tackling complex challenges, and wicked problems that defy simple solutions.

Creative Thinking Rescue Strategies: Keynote talks, workshops and gamified simulations

The insights from our ‘The AI Creative Challenge: How Leaders Can Stay Ahead’  series are now embedded in our latest workshops and programs.

By strategically integrating AI into the creative thinking process, individuals can accelerate insights, uncover hidden connections, and amplify ideation—while remaining active participants to ensure human creativity is not fully automated.

Who Killed Creativity? – Creative Thinking Fundamentals (CSI1) 🔗

Creative Thinking Rescue Strategies – The Creative Process (CSI2)🔗

Creative Solutions Collaborator Canvas: A self-led design thinking canvas to solve wicked problems (CSI2+). 🔗