The simple answer is no! Ai is a tool, not a weapon against our industry!
AI: A Catalyst for Efficiency
Will Interior Design Be Replaced by AI? AI as a tool for interior designers has some brilliant benefits, especially when it comes to the pre-concept and concept design phases. Here at FINCH, we’re strong proponents of using the likes of Dall-e and Midjourney for the development of pre-concepts. This can be used in creating mood images, or seeing how our ideas might work instead of sketching things out. However, in doing so we’re still relying on analog approaches of brainstorming, theme setting, or creating a design narrative, off of Ai, prior to moving forward with the online render engines..
The key benefit in this sense is the efficiency of AI in testing ideas and concepts, getting a quick look at some ideas and how they might work instead of having to draw them up in the model or free-hand sketch them. This can also apply to digital mood boards or digital material boards, it’s here where the efficiency of AI as a tool becomes beneficial to interior designers.
Would we ever develop a full concept design in AI? No, we wouldn’t, there’s too many variables the AI can’t overcome or develop for a real-life site. And more importantly, Human creativity is still unmatched in terms of its value.
Interior designers understand emotion, texture, and feel and have inherent creativity that they project onto their projects and clients in a way that Ai never can. Personal insights, cultural understanding, delicate nuances in space planning, and emotional touch points are not elements the AI can replicate.
Schematic and Detail Design as a moat against AI
When people ask “Will interior design be replaced by AI” for first line of defense, is no, the schematic and detail design phases of projects have created a mote of defensibility for our profession. As with traditional interior architecture and design, the concept is how it looks, the detail design is how it’s built or how it works.
Interior architects and designers are often viewed as the creators of pretty sketches or renders. This is of course why people ask “Will interior designers be replaced by AI. The natural link is “If Ai can do renders, why do we need designers?” and of course, there’s the argument that these renders can be taken and given to a contractor for design and build projects. However, my argument for that is very simple, we design spaces to be built, we don’t build designs. It’s a very crude argument, but one that’s effective.
Aesthetical judgments and harmony - The Human Touch
Designers often rely on their sense of harmony and proportion to create spaces that feel balanced and pleasing to the eye. For instance, the golden ratio has been used historically to create aesthetically pleasing spaces, something that requires a nuanced understanding of space and design. Ai lacks this emotion when it comes to design. As touched up earlier, Ai lacks the psychological understanding or impact of choices as well as a human can.
If we look into cultural appropriateness, or environmental factors as well as LEED, sustainable design and WELL certification, Ai is not primed to target or address these factors on a deep and intrinsic level. When testing these elements in programs, the result is often forced or literal with little to no consideration for effectiveness, flow or balance, where as a designer will consider these elements throughout every stage of the project.
Modelling the future - AI is a tool for interior designers
In terms of daily working structure as a designer, having a 3D model, such as Sketchup or Revit, allows us to iterate, develop and adapt in a far more considered manner, than an Ai program would allow us.
Whilst Ai is a fantastic tool for ideation and creation, or feeding the concept process, it is just that, a tool. A tool allows you to complete a task or aids with it, that’s how we view it at FINCH, a tool to make our jobs somewhat easier, but as of the moment, we’re a long way from Ai replacing the need for interior designers.
