Design Thinking with AI: Unlocking the Creative Leader Within
See how young leaders use AI and design thinking to solve real-world challenges
How do you prepare young leaders for a future that’s fast, complex, and driven by technology? By giving them the tools to think differently, lead with empathy, and turn ideas into real solutions.
That’s exactly what happened during the Design Thinking with AI workshop—organized by Innovation Smile as the final training in the YLC (Young Leaders Community) Leadership Academy. YLC is a Dutch initiative that empowers young Moroccan-Dutch talent to grow as community-minded leaders through intensive leadership development.
In this high-energy session, participants learned to unlock their creativity, apply design thinking, and collaborate with AI to solve real challenges. This blog shows how the fusion of creativity, technology, and leadership can ignite a new generation of changemakers.
Inside the Collaborative Workshop: How AI Accelerated Innovation
The workshop was a unique showcase of how creativity, teamwork, and technology can come together to generate practical solutions. In just a few hours, participants tackled four pressing challenges faced by their community and developed fresh ideas to shape the future. In particular, artificial intelligence (AI) made their ideation and presentation faster, more effective, and more impactful throughout the process. Participants experienced that AI saved time, made their ideas clearer, and boosted their confidence. AI proved to be a silent, effective partner – never tiring, always accelerating their thinking.
From Brain Freeze to Breakthroughs: how AI Supercharges your Creativity
Brainstorming becomes easier and far more productive with AI. Traditional methods often lead to idea blocks or repetitive thinking. AI breaks through those barriers. One participant shared,
“I thought AI would take over our human space. Today I realised that when AI works with humans, creativity multiplies.”
With the support of AI, teams can explore problems from fresh angles and develop strong, actionable concepts within a short timeframe. This workshop showed that, with the right tools and mindset, young people can become society’s most powerful innovators.
Inclusive Leadership in Action: Design Thinking That Listens
Modern leadership means involving everyone—by valuing diverse perspectives and making decisions together. During the workshop, participants practiced this through Design Thinking: solving problems with empathy and teamwork. A powerful example was the YLC board’s use of a supervote to select ideas they believed in. This ensured that board-supported concepts moved forward, aligning the group’s creativity with stakeholder priorities.
One key takeway:
"Involve stakeholders early in your process. It not only sharpens ideas, it builds commitment and shared ownership."
From Ideas to Impact: How Young Leaders turned Challenges into Real-world concepts
In just four hours, participants in YLC’s “Design Thinking with AI” workshop turned complex challenges into concrete concepts. Guided by the steps of empathy, problem definition, ideation, and prototyping—and accelerated by AI—they developed solutions with real potential for impact.
One team designed the Tamkeen Platform, a mentor-matching system to empower young people through guided support.
Another group introduced Walk & Talk, a leadership learning format that connects mentees and mentors during meaningful outdoor conversations. These ideas didn’t stop at the workshop table: participants are now exploring how to bring them to life. The experience not only strengthened their problem-solving and teamwork skills, it sparked a deep sense of leadership and confidence to drive change in their communities.
Lead the future: Empower your Team with Design Thinking and AI
If you want to spark creativity, build leadership, and develop real-world problem-solving power in your team or community, Design Thinking with AI is your next step. This workshop, developed by Innovation Smile, is more than just a training—it’s a high-energy journey from challenge to concept to action, all within a few hours. Tailored for young leaders and changemakers, it equips participants with the mindset and tools to lead with empathy, think creatively, and act with confidence.
The Young Leaders Community showed what’s possible: from tackling complex challenges to designing solutions like the Tamkeen Platform and Walk & Talk, they proved that the leaders of tomorrow are already here. Now it’s time to activate the same potential in your own team.
👉 Want to bring this workshop to your organization or community?
📩 Contact Jolanda Burgers at jolanda.burgers@innovationsmile.nl
Let’s shape the future—together, one idea at a time.
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