Artificial intelligence (AI), technology that simulates human intelligence, is changing the interior design Industry with apps like Arch, Houzz, HomeDesignsAI and more.
Rather than hiring an interior designer you can do it all yourself with a click of a button. Although AI has proved to be a helpful tool it is negatively affecting job prospects for interior design students.
“I am a little worried about it in the long run, just in how it could interfere with my job and job prospects,” says Lauryn Neill, a second-year interior design student at Fanshawe.
“As an emerging professional, I think that people seeing how easy it is to get an entire concept online in seconds, it definitely makes a bit of a challenge for someone who’s looking for work,” says Victoria Konstantina, a third-year interior design student at Fanshawe.
AI has proved helpful by having the ability to render designs faster than doing it by hand.
“It makes seeing your project or your product come to life a lot easier than hand drawings and it is a lot more accurate,” says Neill, “it is really helpful for me, it does make a lot of the things I have to do a lot easier. I can do a lot more in a shorter period of time.”
“A lot of the software that we use are actually AI oriented, so it helps us be able to navigate spaces virtually,” Neill explains,
“it’s really cool. It’s something no other interior designers have been able to do before our generation.”
However, there is still a lot of stuff AI can’t do. “It doesn’t understand building codes, electrical work, plumbing work, it doesn’t understand what kind of supports a building has,” says Neill.
“It can’t think about how the space will change with the person or how the people will live within it. It can only show you what it would look like,” Konstantina adds, “it doesn’t understand how humans interact with the space.”
AI is aiding the interior design industry by producing designs in mere seconds, but in turn is also taking away from interior designers.
“I think it’s a struggle to incorporate it as a learning tool rather than something that is stealing from the actual designers themselves,” says Carly Weirmier, a second-year interior design student at Fanshawe.
As AI continues to evolve within this industry, interior designers are learning to use this new technology as a tool and working to adapt.
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