generative AI can indeed boost employee creativity, but the gains are not universal. Specifically, employees with stronger metacognition—the ability to plan, evaluate, monitor, and refine their thinking—are more likely to experience creative gains from using generative AI, because they can use it more effectively to acquire the cognitive job resources that fuel creativity.
For leaders and organizations, this finding reframes the challenge of AI-enabled creativity: to unlock AI’s potential for boosting workplace creativity, organizations must go beyond simply rolling out new tools; they also need to invest in developing employees’ metacognition and promote the thoughtful, strategic use of AI so employees can translate AI outputs into more effective creative performance.
