The role of artificial intelligence in co-creation of health professions education: Integrating innovation into collaboration

Co-creation has emerged as a transformative approach to meaningful collaboration among students, teachers, and other key stakeholders. Although co-creation aims to integrate all stakeholders' diverse perspectives and foster engagement, motivation, and ownership among them, some practical challenges can impact its implementation. The operationalization of co-creation needs a feasible, step-by-step plan to address interpersonal, practical, and institutional challenges, which can undermine co-creation. This guide examines how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be leveraged across all phases of the co-creation cycle-preparation, conduction, and follow-up. It offers innovative insights into the intentional deployment of AI tools to enhance collaboration while preserving the relational essence of co-creation. We describe how AI can facilitate recruitment of diverse participants, design and planning of co-creation activities, brainstorming, shared decision-making, process evaluation, dissemination of outcomes, and integration of co-created outcomes into the curricula. This guide applies the Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition (SAMR) model and the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework to theoretically examine how AI can enhance or fundamentally reshape co-creation. It also underscores essential ethical considerations for integrating AI into co-creation. After reading this guide with comprehensive and practical guidelines, educators can effectively integrate AI into co-creation initiatives, aiming to enhance both the processes and outcomes of co-creation.