So many industries are becoming increasingly digitalised, with processes becoming consumed by Artificial Intelligence.
And interior design is now becoming more and more driven by AI, with nearly 65% of interior designers feeding AI tools into their design processes.
Now, AI plays a strong role in how many designers manage their business, and how many create their designs.
Although this has many positives, is it really leading a creative industry in the right direction?
Kate Conrad, the senior interior designer at luxury homeware retailer Madison & Mayfair, shares what she believes to be the positives and negatives of implementing AI tools into interior design processes.
How can AI play a positive role?
The power of Artificial Intelligence is significant, able to carry out so many tasks extremely efficiently.
“AI tools can automate so many of the projects and duties involved in interior design, such as creating floor plans, 3D models, and renderings”, says Kate.
“This can save so much time, streamlining processes for a more condensed approach, creating a more cost-effective procedure as a result”.
AI tools can also support the creative side of things. “There are tools to assist with generating design ideas, and even layouts according to inputs based on room size, the allocated budget, and design preferences”, adds Kate.
“And, through analysing past trends and predicting future ones, AI can support designers in keeping up with any changes in styles and preferences, offering suggestions to suit what is current within the industry”.
It also helps to provide space-optimising solutions, creating layouts that have been designed through considering all of the required information, from the dimensions to the shape of the space to the placement of windows and doors.
AI can ensure that the customer is subject to a personal, fully immersive experience, too. “You can enter design preferences and ideas in order to get results that fully reflect the client’s personal taste.
“And, with VR technologies, you can even help clients to effectively and accurately visualise ideas and suggestions, creating virtual representations of spaces with design ideas overlayed on top of real areas”.
How can AI play a negative role?
Although there are so many benefits of utilising various AI, it does not come without its negative impacts.
“We are running the risk of losing the human nature of a creative industry such as interior design”, Kate says.
“Although we can input a lot of data to craft a personalised suggestion, AI cannot compare to the emotional abilities of a human mind.
“Experienced designers will combine their knowledge and understanding of architecture, culture, history, art, psychology and sociology in order to create a space that invites an emotional response based on deeper factors than dimensions and trends”.
AI tools also risk providing biased results. “AI goes off data, and if that data is biased, then the results will be as well.
“If you base your designs purely off AI responses, then it may not be fully reliable or innovative.
“This also feeds into the lack of creativity that comes with AI tools, which may seem contradictory to the positive impact of some aspects of creativity that these tools provide, as previously mentioned.
“Due to AI basing findings off of trends and previous information, it does not foster a process based on originality. Although it provides a good foundation for creativity, the results themselves do not match the imagination and inventiveness of the human mind”, says Kate.
