Abstract
Creativity is increasingly in demand as a key differentiator for data analytics professionals. Yet educators have grappled with how to encourage creativity in student thought processes. This paper explores the use of Generative AI, and specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), to investigate creativity within the data analytics field. We investigate the data analytics process to understand where creativity might be needed, and we then present a teaching case where students work through a data analytics problem both independently and with LLM assistance. We compare the two results to determine if there is evidence that the structured use of LLMs can encourage creativity in data analytics. Our initial results indicate that LLMs are useful in encouraging student creativity in the areas of fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, and insight. Student reflections demonstrate that they recognize the impact of LLMs on their creative output.
Recommended Citation
Phillips-Wren, Gloria; Ariyachandra, Thilini; and Gupta, Babita, "Encouraging Creativity in Data Analytics using Generative AI" (2025). Proceedings of the 2025 Pre-ICIS SIGDSA Symposium. 77.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/sigdsa2025/77