AI-Powered Scoring for Creative Thinking: Methods and Challenges in PISA Assessment

The introduction of the PISA 2022 Creative Thinking assessment underscores the growing need for scalable, valid, and reliable methods to evaluate creativity in international large-scale assessments. Traditional human scoring, while nuanced, is time-consuming, costly, and subject to inconsistencies. This paper explores recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP)—particularly transformer-based large language models (LLMs)—as promising alternatives for automated scoring. We review three methodological approaches: (1) unsupervised methods using semantic distance, (2) supervised fine-tuning with labeled data, and (3) few−/zero-shot learning using prompt-based inference. Empirical findings from verbal and visual creative tasks show that AI-based scoring systems can approximate human ratings with substantial accuracy (r = 0.70–0.85), even across different languages and task formats. A case study using the PISA Book Covers task demonstrates convergence between AI and human scores, with reliability levels comparable to traditional scoring. However, key challenges remain, particularly regarding cross-cultural comparability, bias mitigation, and interpretability. We discuss psychometric strategies (e.g., Many-Facet Rasch Models) to model these issues and propose future directions, including scoring of distinct creativity dimensions and developing transparent, open-source platforms. If rigorously validated, AI-based scoring offers a feasible and equitable path forward for assessing creativity globally.