Exploring the impact of AI features on collaborative creativity

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into popular digital tools for creative tasks. Many creative professionals also work collaboratively using these tools, and it is therefore important to investigate the effects of AI features on digitally mediated collaborative creativity. Utilizing a controlled experiment with 36 participants grouped in pairs, we assessed the effect of adding AI capabilities to a digital collaboration tool on the generation of creative ideas. The added AI features included support for divergent thinking, sense-making, and convergent thinking. Results, while statistically insignificant, indicate clear tendencies for trade-offs between appropriateness and novelty, such that pairs using AI support developed more novel, but less appropriate ideas. This preliminary study suggests that while AI can enhance the ideation process by expanding the possibility space, it may also lead to a decrease in the suitability of the generated ideas. These findings contribute to the understanding of AI's role in creative collaborations and highlight the nuanced effects of AI tools in creative processes.