Abstract: The growing adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in organizational settings challenges the continued applicability of established knowledge management (KM) theories, particularly in explaining how tacit and explicit knowledge are created and transformed in AI-augmented environments. While Nonaka’s SECI model remains a foundational framework for conceptualizing knowledge conversion, it provides limited operational guidance for governing human-centered knowledge processes under increasing algorithmic mediation. This paper proposes a conceptual framework that extends the SECI model by integrating design thinking as an operational control layer for knowledge conversion in the generative AI era. By systematically mapping design thinking phases onto the SECI knowledge spiral, the framework specifies how empathy-driven inquiry, structured articulation, synthesis, and experiential learning regulate socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization processes. Generative AI is positioned as a mediating enabler that augments knowledge synthesis and exploration while preserving human agency, interpretive authority, and accountability. The proposed framework enhances the explanatory and operational clarity of the SECI model and provides a systems-oriented foundation for responsible and sustainable knowledge creation in AI-augmented organizational contexts.