As an interior designer, Henrietta Heisler always keeps up with the latest trends, but not all of them have to do with paint colors, fabrics and furniture styles.
She recently created a new position to keep pace with technological trends at Henrietta Heisler Interiors, the Lancaster-based interior design firm she has owned and directed for the past 21 years. As the new business development and marketing specialist, Natalia Latsios will, among other duties, help the firm become more proficient in artificial intelligence technology.
Although AI is in its infancy in interior design, Heisler recognizes the importance of being able to adapt to new trends.
“Just like design trends change, we stay up to date with the latest technology and will continue to monitor how we can use it in our business and bring our clients even better results,” she says.
Artificial intelligence has been around for some 50 years, but only gained momentum in recent years for the interior design industry.
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AI in design
So what role can AI play in the interior design of your home?
An AI text prompt for information can generate a concept for a visual room design based on a client’s description in less than a minute, says Leslie Carothers, owner of Savour Partnership, a digital marketing agency based in League City, Texas.
Carothers, whose work focus is “all things virtual and AI,” explains that AI programs like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and Adobe Photoshop’s Generative Fill feature include millions of datasets collected through observations, measurements, study or analysis.
Interior designers can use those programs to create visuals based on text prompts, she says.
AI can also be used for things like product ideas, a particular element of a space or to produce a piece of art, she says.
Carothers uses her interior design background and AI savvy to educate designers and home-related design industries about how to use the technology, which she says takes education and practice.
“Designers need to use imagination and describe in detail to tell the computer what the image should look like,” she says.
‘Wow experience’
In her online workshops, Carothers partners with Annilee Waterman, a Dallas, Texas-based artist, certified professional building designer and registered interior designer. Together they show how clients can use a desktop computer, mobile device or virtual reality headset to venture into a metaverse, or 3D virtual realm, where they can actually walk through a room or a series of rooms that a designer has created for them to consider.
This literal connection of designer and client spatially in a 3D-designed room space is something Carothers describes as the “wow experience.”
However, Carothers is quick to note that AI can never replace the execution capabilities and problem-solving abilities of a professional interior designer. Rather, the technology offers quick creative ideation for text-savvy designers.
Her main takeaway for the technology: “AI is a creative catalyst to enhance workflow speed, but it can never replace the soul, care, eye, knowledge and experience a professional designer brings to an interior design project.”
Heisler agrees. While AI can streamline processes, she says, “Human problems require a human touch.”
“Using AI is a tool to help generate ideas,” Heisler says. “Just like any other online software, it can stimulate possibilities and use a vast source of information.”
She’s familiar with the subscription-based software programs to create sketches, generate design options and create 3D models.
Currently, Heisler says the firm is also a huge fan of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence text chatbot that is trained to mimic human writing. Built on a generative machine learning model, the platform has a large dataset of information and can answer questions and generate text based on prompts.
Heisler says her firm has used ChatGPT to create many systems and processes to make the business more efficient.
Improving safety, quality
But there’s more to interior design than just coming up with a design, Heisler says. It’s more than aesthetics, she says, and her skilled designers always take time to truly evaluate their ideas for clients.
Architects and home builders are also starting to use AI to improve safety, productivity and quality.
According to a July article on Digital Builder, a blog produced by the construction management software company Autodesk, the technology is expected to propel the industry forward, and improve outcomes for workers, contracting companies and end clients. It can identify errors in the design and save time. AI-powered computer vision can also analyze safety incidents, flag hazards and noncompliance by workers to reduce risks.
While AI may influence the future of construction, it’s a tool to increase the industry’s progress and not replace humans, Pat Keaney, director of product management, intelligence at Autodesk Construction R&D, stated in the article.
“Over the next five to 10 years, AI and construction is going to be all about augmenting people, making people more efficient, making them smarter, and making their lives better,” Keaney said.
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