{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20261011-9e4b62c5",
  "url": "/knowledge/generate-human-options-before-asking-ai-for-ideas",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9223",
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "title": "Generate human options before asking AI for ideas",
  "summary": "Do not make the model the common starting point when diversity is part of the job.",
  "kind": "protocol",
  "body": "Save a short human-origin first pass before AI exposure when breadth matters. Recent meta-analytic evidence suggests that human–AI co-creation can modestly homogenize outputs, and a 2026 preregistered preprint found less collective diversity when AI supplied the starting idea than when AI refined human-origin ideas in a metaphor task. After the first pass, use AI to extend, challenge or refine the saved directions rather than replacing them with one common seed list. This is a sequencing heuristic, not an anti-AI rule: AI can raise individual idea quality, and workflow design can recover part of the diversity loss.",
  "limits": [
    "Use this when diversity is valuable, not as a ritual for every task. If the work is routine or speed and average quality matter more than option breadth, AI-first can be reasonable. The recent homogenisation meta-analysis found a small, task-sensitive effect, not universal convergence; product-ideation experiments also show that heterogeneous constraints, personas, model choice and human-guided search can improve AI diversity. The human-first sequence itself is not yet validated across professional teams, and fast-moving model changes can alter the trade-off."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-independent-first-team-ideation"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "A meta-analysis of brainstorming research found that interactive brainstorming groups were less productive than nominal groups on average in both idea quantity and quality, with larger losses under some conditions including larger groups and vocal rather than written contribution formats.",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The synthesis is based on older brainstorming experiments and does not imply that group interaction is generally harmful or that nominal generation is best for evaluation, integration, coordination, or every digital format.",
      "locator": "Abstract",
      "source_id": "RS-4AE7BD51148486B706BE"
    },
    {
      "claim": "Open-innovation experiments found that exposure to increasing numbers of competitive prior ideas could constrain later creative performance, supporting a boundary around showing everyone the existing option set before they have formed any options of their own.",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The studies concern competitive open-innovation contexts. Exposure to others' ideas can also stimulate useful combinations in other designs, so the practical recommendation is to protect a first pass rather than hide ideas throughout collaboration.",
      "locator": "Abstract; Studies 1–3",
      "source_id": "RS-3793C1A41E1ED71E75D4"
    },
    {
      "claim": "One study found that facilitated interacting brainstorming groups performed about as well as nominal groups, showing that the productivity gap is not an immutable property of people generating ideas together.",
      "role": "limits",
      "note": "This finding comes from one older study and does not establish that facilitation always removes production loss; it is retained as a boundary against an absolute individual-first rule.",
      "locator": "Abstract",
      "source_id": "RS-0F5BF8A609B9AEFCA9AB"
    },
    {
      "claim": "A 2026 systematic review and three-level meta-analysis of 19 human–AI co-creation studies found a small but statistically significant homogenisation effect associated with generative AI use, with stronger effects in some semantically constrained ideation tasks.",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The pooled effect was small and heterogeneous. Homogenisation is task-sensitive and should not be read as evidence that AI universally reduces useful creativity or that all AI-assisted workflows converge.",
      "locator": "Abstract; moderator analyses",
      "source_id": "RS-C7768FDFFE6E36F97470"
    },
    {
      "claim": "In a preregistered 2026 experiment with 644 writers, AI-provided ideas reduced collective diversity in a creative-metaphor task, while using AI to refine human-origin ideas preserved collective diversity relative to human-only work.",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "This is a recent preprint using one metaphor task and language-diversity design. It is directional evidence for sequencing, not a validated general protocol for workplace brainstorming.",
      "locator": "Abstract; methods and reported ideation-versus-refinement comparison",
      "source_id": "RS-50CC5239F8627621C7AA"
    },
    {
      "claim": "A 2026 product-innovation study found that LLM-generated ideas scored highly on average quality while producing less diverse idea sets than human generation in the studied tasks.",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The quality measure and ideation domain were specific to low-cost products for college students. Strong average quality is a reason not to frame the evidence as an anti-AI rule.",
      "locator": "Studies 1–2; abstract; diversity analyses",
      "source_id": "RS-7C53804435B10E4EB8CF"
    },
    {
      "claim": "In the same 2026 product-ideation research, structured heterogeneity such as varied personas or functional constraints and human-guided problem exploration substantially increased LLM idea diversity, showing that convergence can be changed by workflow design.",
      "role": "limits",
      "note": "Not every diversity intervention helped: independent one-idea sessions and repeated 'make it bolder' refinement performed poorly in this setting. Prompt effects and model rankings can change as systems evolve.",
      "locator": "Study 3; prompting and creative-agent results",
      "source_id": "RS-7C53804435B10E4EB8CF"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "You need a genuinely broad option set and are about to ask the same generative-AI system for starting ideas before you or the team have formed any of your own."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Use this when diversity is valuable, not as a ritual for every task. If the work is routine or speed and average quality matter more than option breadth, AI-first can be reasonable. The recent homogenisation meta-analysis found a small, task-sensitive effect, not universal convergence; product-ideation experiments also show that heterogeneous constraints, personas, model choice and human-guided search can improve AI diversity. The human-first sequence itself is not yet validated across professional teams, and fast-moving model changes can alter the trade-off."
  ],
  "example": "A team needs ways to reduce failures in a nightly data load. Each consultant first records possible mechanisms independently. Only then does the team ask AI to stress-test and extend the set. The final pool contains model-assisted improvements without losing the distinct retry, isolation, monitoring and architecture paths that existed before the shared AI prompt.",
  "check": "Some human-origin options existed before AI exposure, the final pool still contains distinct branches rather than only variations on the model's first suggestions, and the team can tell which ideas came from which stage.",
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-4AE7BD51148486B706BE",
    "RS-3793C1A41E1ED71E75D4",
    "RS-0F5BF8A609B9AEFCA9AB",
    "RS-C7768FDFFE6E36F97470",
    "RS-50CC5239F8627621C7AA",
    "RS-7C53804435B10E4EB8CF"
  ],
  "published_at": "2026-10-01T14:27:00Z",
  "steps": [
    "Write the problem and hard constraints without opening AI suggestions.",
    "Record several meaningfully different human-origin directions; in a team, keep each person's first pass independent until it is saved.",
    "Then use AI to expand, challenge or refine those directions and to search for missing mechanisms rather than asking it to define the whole option space from scratch.",
    "Pool the human-origin and AI-assisted options. Mark duplicates and near-duplicates, then judge quality and breadth separately before choosing."
  ],
  "editorial_overlay": null,
  "editorial": null,
  "notices": [],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-4AE7BD51148486B706BE",
      "title": "Productivity Loss in Brainstorming Groups: A Meta-Analytic Integration",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324834basp1201_1"
    },
    {
      "id": "RS-3793C1A41E1ED71E75D4",
      "title": "Constraining Ideas: How Seeing Ideas of Others Harms Creativity in Open Innovation",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1177/0022243720964429"
    },
    {
      "id": "RS-0F5BF8A609B9AEFCA9AB",
      "title": "The Effects of Facilitation, Recording, and Pauses on Group Brainstorming",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496496272005"
    },
    {
      "id": "RS-C7768FDFFE6E36F97470",
      "title": "Does generative AI make us think alike? A systematic review and meta-analysis of homogenisation effects in human–AI co-creation",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2026.2726451"
    },
    {
      "id": "RS-50CC5239F8627621C7AA",
      "title": "Human diversity fuels collective creativity that large language models cannot simulate or sustain",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.26899"
    },
    {
      "id": "RS-7C53804435B10E4EB8CF",
      "title": "Artificial intelligence and its impact on creativity and diversity: An empirical study of large language model-generated product ideas",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1177/10591478261474243"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9223",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0742",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/generate-in-writing-before-the-group-starts-talking"
    },
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9223",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-0745",
      "type": "use_before",
      "url": "/knowledge/separate-generation-clarification-and-ranking"
    },
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9223",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1264",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/generate-once-before-opening-the-visual-examples"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-02E11C1D5BBA1F56BD86",
      "title": "Protect human-origin ideas before AI enters the search",
      "url": "/collections/protect-human-origin-ideas-before-ai-enters-the-search"
    }
  ],
  "topic_hubs": [],
  "solution_packs": []
}