<p>This study investigates the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on engineering students’ creativity, examining the mediating roles of critical thinking and AI self-efficacy in this relationship. We analyze the data collected using SPSS (v.24) and SmartPLS (v.4) to assess the variables’ structural relationships and effect sizes. The results demonstrate that GenAI usage competence significantly enhances engineering students’ creativity (t &gt; 1.96, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.05,f² = 0.012). Furthermore, critical thinking partially mediates the relationships between GenAI usage competence and AI self-efficacy, as well as between GenAI usage competence and creativity (t &gt; 1.96, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). AI self-efficacy is also a partial mediator in the relationships between critical thinking and creativity, and between GenAI usage competence and creativity (t &gt; 1.96, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). This study identifies a chain mediation model in which critical thinking and AI self-efficacy sequentially mediate the relationship between GenAI usage competence and student creativity (t &gt; 1.96, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001). These findings highlight the interplay between technological tools, cognitive abilities, and psychological factors, indicating that simply teaching technical skills is not enough. For engineering education, this implies that integrating GenAI tools into the curriculum must go hand in hand with fostering students’ critical thinking and AI self-efficacy to truly enhance creativity.</p>