A new study suggests that AI may make workers more creative, but there’s a catch: Only certain employees are reaping the benefits.
The new data, in “How and For Whom Using Generative AI Affects Creativity: A Field Experiment,” was recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. For the study, the researchers conducted an experiment to find out exactly who is getting a creative boost from the technology and why.
Researchers randomly assigned 250 employees to either use ChatGPT to assist with their work or not. The employees who used the artificial intelligence tool were ranked higher in creativity by evaluators—but not all of them. Only the ones who had displayed strong “metacognitive skills” performed better, creatively speaking.
According to the research, employees who displayed such skills “could reflect on what information they lacked, keep track of how effective their approach is and reassess their approach when noticing a lack of progress, and refine their AI prompts accordingly.”
Metacognitive techniques essentially allow people to tune into their own thinking and learning processes; those who are able to think about their learning process and make changes are most likely to use AI tools well.
“Metacognition—thinking about your thinking—is the missing link between simply using AI and using it well,” Jackson G. Lu, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, says of the results. “It allows people to ask better questions, recognize knowledge gaps, and extract real value from AI tools instead of relying on them passively.”
Of course, there’s a real learning curve when it comes to using AI, and, as Lu explains, that learning curve matters.
While tools like ChatGPT have tons of potential, they don’t benefit anyone—especially when it comes to boosting creativity—if they aren’t being used in a way that makes an impact. “Even the most powerful AI won’t boost creativity if employees don’t know how to use it effectively,” says Lu. “Organizations should pair AI deployment with metacognition training to maximize the creative benefits.”
Sabrina H. Williams, a creativity researcher at the University of South Carolina, examines how technology affects creative thinking, confidence, and human agency. Williams says the study shows something that is consistent with her own findings: that “AI does not automatically make people more or less creative.”
Instead, Williams says the outcome depends on how well users examine and respond to the answers AI gives.
“Strong metacognitive skills can help workers use AI as a brainstorming partner without becoming anchored to its first responses or outsourcing the judgment that creativity requires,” the researcher explains.
Many workers are already using AI to upskill on the job, even to learn skills they weren’t taught at work, showing that employees are broadly embracing the technology.
Still, when it comes to creativity, according to the latest research, learning to “think about thinking” may be just as important as learning to use AI itself.