Interior Design and Artificial Intelligence

Interior Design & Artificial Intelligence

How will AI impact interior design, interior designers and interior design business owners?

From concept to drawings, images - 2D/3D, XR (VR, AR,MR), 3D models, AI designed/created objects

2D
3D
Virtual reality - VR - headset shuts out real life
Augmented reality - AR - virtual objects laid over real life (Snapchat sunglass filter)
Mixed reality - MR
3D printed models
Move beyond printing models to eventually printing some or all of a product - furniture, lighting fixture, fabric based on AI & manufacturing technology.

From the drawing & permit phase, AI could generate a list of every single thing needed for the job.

From the list of stuff created by AI, based on an existing list of suppliers, AI could suggest specific items based on price tiers, availability, etc. For example, if a designer specifies a custom couch of a specific size, the AI could send out a RFG to their supplier's AI.
Designer and contractor/builder could finalize selections. Over time, specific items could skip this step
AI organizes purchasing decisions (in concert with human designers) with production schedule
Same could be done for organizing workforce

AI bots can continually pay attention to global/national/local marketplaces and offer suggestions re business strategy. AI bots can be trained on the best business practices.
Every interior design business owner could submit their business to an AI business strategy service to analyze current practices and suggest improvements

AI Chatbots are already replacing FAQs. I’m not sure how this will actually help designers. Our business is based on providing a luxury service and I’m not sure how clients will appreciate speaking to a bot rather than a person. It may be more efficient, but it doesn’t feel like we’re valuing the client and their experience.
AI will help with data analysis. Instead of relying on the sole marketing person, AI can bring marketing & sales best practices to every interior design business. Marketing & sales strategies can be developed in concert with management
AI automation in online marketing seems like a potential use for AI
High-touch activities don’t seem like a place for AI
Weekly project updates could be generated by AI and emailed

AI in bookkeeping & accounting seems likely
AI could also analyze company profit centres
AI could also analyze where company activities are not generating profits
AI could also suggest potential products and services not currently offered for sale

AI could suggest best practices for systems & processes
AI could help business owners/managers identify & record their current systems/processes, analyze them, suggest improvements, organize, record & distribute those processes company-wide. AI could also create a system to test the efficacy of those processes & make changes to come up with the absolute best set of processes for each individual company/department

AI will impact human resources for both the employer and designers looking to be employed

Instead of a human HR rep leading a new hire through the process, every employee will have an AI HR avatar for each new hire with a specific set of instructions/teaching modules for the hire. For a set period of time, the HR bot will monitor & advise the new hire as they start working at their new job. For example, before the new hire replies to an email, the AI will analyze, look for errors and offer suggestions to the new hire.
AI could also monitor all employee interactions and make suggestions if breaches of policy are happening.
AI can also monitor job performance in regard to promotions/demotions/etc. This way people could be judged by their performance and value to the company based on tangible metrics rather than nepotism and/or unconscious biases

AI will likely take over a lot of all tech being used by ID companies
During the transition, AI bots could suggest how existing tech used by an interior design business can be best used in concert with AI tech…essentially serving as an in-house info tech manager
This AI could be in-house or a SAAS provided by an outside company

How could AI train designers of the future?

Teach designers how to use AI to improve the design & business skills with custom education delivered in school, in video course format, within a virtual reality platform

Imagine one of the top interior design schools takes all of their education into a fully-immersive virtual reality platform in which students can interact with instructors & other students using sight, sound and touch.
Course content can be created with input from bot AI and human instructors
AI teachers can be created to learn from human instructors in an effort to lower class sizes. In theory, each student could have their own AI teacher helping them navigate the course curriculum.

Using this model, designers could learn any topic related to their chosen career. Business skills, design skills, people skills, sales, marketing…even related skill sets like residential construction
Of course, as many tasks will be replaced and/or enhanced by AI, what the designer needs to know is going to change. For example, if a designer wants to learn how to market their own interior design business, will they need to everything today’s designer would learn???