Ideation, GenAI and critical thinking

In an analogue world, design ideas aren't forced upon the designer. They are conjectural, or guesses about reality - a proposal or tentative solution to a posed problem. In this pursuit, designers aren't idealists because design ideation is a purposeful activity aiming at realisable ideas. The designer, then, is seen as a realist seeking to be proven right. That is, the designer faces practicality having to accept the physical facts of the situation and, oftentimes the emotional side to the problem at hand. Yet some ideas can clash with reality, and when they do they remind designers that ideas may be mistaken. Ideation, then, is a process that must allow criticism in order for the idea to move forward, to propose a better solution. That is, ideation includes critical thinking skills. And so, designers not only need to be imaginative and open-minded but willing to be corrected. However, with the rise of Generative AI, what is its impact on critical thinking? Interestingly, a recent survey (2025) shows that in GenAI-assisted tasks higher confidence in GenAI is associated with less critical thinking, while higher self-confidence is associated with more critical thinking.* This may suggest that practsing ideation without GenAI assistance could help foster greater critical thinking skills also raising designer self-confidence in problem-solving ability. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/the-impact-of-generative-ai-on-critical-thinking-self-reported-reductions-in-cognitive-effort-and-confidence-effects-from-a-survey-of-knowledge-workers/