Can GenAI boost architectural design? It depends on experience

Kari Jaaskelainen

16 Jan 2026 — 1 min read

Can AI make architecture students better designers? A controlled study of 36 students compared solo work to a second round with either Generative AI or a repository of past projects. Experts rated designs; students reported confidence and mental effort.

What they found:

No overall performance boost from GenAI versus the repository.
Novices improved significantly with GenAI; more experienced students did not.
Students using GenAI felt lower general creative self-efficacy.
Cognitive load was similar across groups, but prompts that iterated on ideas and asked for visual feedback correlated with lower mental effort.

GenAI helps beginners—how you prompt matters.

Takeaway: Match tools to experience, and prompt iteratively for ideas and visuals to lighten mental load.

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10696v1 (Han Jiang, Yao Xiao, Rachel Hurley, Shichao Liu)

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.10696v1

Register: https://www.AiFeta.com

#GenerativeAI #Architecture #Design #Creativity #CognitiveLoad #Education #UXResearch #AI

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