The swift infusion of artificial intelligence in classrooms exacerbates a long-standing learning issue in a deeper way: efficiency versus creativity. Advocates argue that AI can tailor teaching, give feedback, and develop simulations of experiments that many schools cannot afford. These advantages can enhance abilities and reduce disparities. While Skeptics fear that generative systems that compose essays, solve problems, and produce artwork may transform students from creators of novel work into consumers of perfected outputs.
The essential problem is cognitive processing. Research in education correlates long-lasting learning and innovative transfer with effortful recall, distributed practice, and repeated refinement, in which productive struggle flourishes. When AI offers shortcuts around such phases, opportunities to implement or foster processes that support creative and flexible thought are foregone. However, the conclusion is not inevitable. With intentional design of tasks, AI can induce creativity: models can make various prompts, draw swift prototypes, and reveal remote analogies that a student must criticise, modify, and elaborate. This results in actionable recommendations.
Assessment should not be about one perfect piece of work, but the whole learning journey of a student. Professional development must teach prompt literacy, model appraisal, and scaffolding so teachers can judge the quality of AI responses and guide students in using AI responsibly. Procuring AI tools should prioritise transparency, be subject to bias audits, and ensure student data protection while supporting teachers in using them effectively.
AI strengthens the motives for learning. If left unchecked, convenience will overshadow skill, making students more efficient but less creative. With good teaching and ethical guidelines, AI can enhance creativity by advancing education and offering students greater achievement opportunities. The most crucial factor is how AI is designed and used: it should encourage challenging work, ask for feedback, and guide students in making good decisions. Policymakers, educators, and communities must act in tandem to control this transformation and safeguard the students' independence, so they do not entirely depend on AI.
(The author is a student of PGDM at the Goa Institute of Management)
