The Future of Education

The growing presence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in creative workflows has intensified debates around authorship, originality and learning in higher education. This paper critically reflects on an experience-based pedagogical intervention implemented in a Master’s programme in Graphic Design, where the use of AI was made compulsory rather than restricted. Students were asked to design a personal self-promotion kit, combining printed artefacts and a digital portfolio, while maintaining a structured diary documenting their interaction with AI tools throughout the design process. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of students’ reflective reports, process diaries and teaching observations, the study examines how enforced transparency and documentation influenced students’ learning and design thinking. Rather than framing AI as a productivity tool or a threat to academic integrity, the intervention approached AI as an object of critical literacy within studio-based learning. Findings indicate that AI was predominantly used as a cognitive and organizational support for early-stage exploration, problem framing and technical facilitation, while its limitations, such as visual standardization, literal interpretations and weak material sensitivity, were consistently identified. The requirement to document iterations, failures and decision-making processes fostered reflective practice and slowed down otherwise accelerated workflows, reinforcing students’ awareness of authorship and responsibility. Mandatory engagement with AI did not diminish creative agency; instead, it repositioned students as critical mediators who curate, evaluate and transform algorithmic outputs through human judgement. The paper argues that integrating AI within reflective, process-oriented pedagogical frameworks can strengthen critical thinking, ethical awareness and AI literacy in design education, offering a constructive alternative to prohibition-based responses to emerging creative technologies.