[Paper Review] Guru, Partner, or Pencil Sharpener? Understanding Designers' Attitudes Towards Intelligent Creativity Support Tools

Angus Main, Mick Grierson|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jul 9, 2020

Creativity in Education and Neuroscience18 references4 citations

TL;DR

This study investigates professional designers' attitudes toward AI-powered Creativity Support Tools (CST) through a survey of 46 practitioners, revealing a pragmatic, collaborative mindset toward AI. Designers favor AI as a supportive partner—particularly in research-intensive stages like moodboarding and market analysis—rather than as a co-creator, indicating strong receptiveness to tools that enhance, rather than replace, their creative agency.

ABSTRACT

Creativity Support Tools (CST) aim to enhance human creativity, but the deeply personal and subjective nature of creativity makes the design of universal support tools challenging. Individuals develop personal approaches to creativity, particularly in the context of commercial design where signature styles and techniques are valuable commodities. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques could provide a means of creating 'intelligent' CST which learn and adapt to personal styles of creativity. Identifying what kind of role such tools could play in the design process requires a better understanding of designers' attitudes towards working with AI, and their willingness to include it in their personal creative process. This paper details the results of a survey of professional designers which indicates a positive and pragmatic attitude towards collaborating with AI tools, and a particular opportunity for incorporating them in the research stages of a design project.

Motivation & Objective

• To understand professional designers' attitudes toward integrating AI into their creative workflows.
• To identify the perceived roles AI tools could play in the design process without undermining creative ownership.
• To explore the alignment between designers' personal creative identities and the functionality of intelligent CST.
• To inform the design of AI-powered tools that support, rather than disrupt, established creative practices.

Proposed method

• A survey was administered to 46 professional designers across commercial design disciplines, including product, graphic, and interaction design.
• The survey assessed perceptions of AI capabilities, attitudes toward collaboration with AI, and the perceived suitability of AI for specific design tasks.
• Quantitative ratings were collected on AI's perceived ability to support various stages of the design process, including ideation, research, and refinement.
• Free-text responses were analyzed to identify nuanced attitudes, such as concerns about ownership and collaboration.
• The study applied qualitative thematic analysis to interpret responses on AI roles (e.g., guru, partner, pencil sharpener) and barriers to creativity.
• Findings were triangulated with existing theories of creativity (e.g., Boden’s P-creative, H-creative) and CST roles (e.g., Lubart’s nanny model).

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How do professional designers perceive the role of AI in supporting their creative processes?
• RQ2 Which stages of the design process are most amenable to AI assistance, according to designers?
• RQ3 To what extent do designers feel their sense of creative ownership is threatened by AI collaboration?
• RQ4 What are the primary barriers to creativity that AI tools could help mitigate, according to designers?
• RQ5 How do designers’ perceptions of AI align with established models of creativity support (e.g., assistant, collaborator, co-creator)?

Key findings

• Designers perceive AI as most suitable for supporting the discovery phase of design, including inspiration gathering, moodboarding, materials research, and market analysis.
• A majority of designers expressed openness to collaborating with AI tools, particularly in supportive roles such as assistant or collaborator, rather than as co-creators.
• The perceived risk of diminished creative ownership was low, especially in collaborative design contexts where teamwork is already normative.
• Distraction and fixation were identified as key barriers to creativity, suggesting a need for ambient, adaptive AI tools that guide focus and prevent cognitive overload.
• Designers demonstrated a pragmatic understanding of AI capabilities, indicating a foundation for integrating AI tools into design education and tool development.
• There is a strong preference for AI to act as a facilitator or researcher, reinforcing the designer’s role rather than replacing it.