The Conversation Around AI Is Moving Faster Than Most People Realize

The conversation around AI has evolved incredibly fast. Just a few years ago, most of us were experimenting with image generators as inspiration tools. At the time, I was heavily involved in virtual spaces and metaverse work, and I even incorporated Midjourney instruction into some of my monthly webinars. Back then, it felt more like an advanced Pinterest tool for atmosphere, style exploration, and brainstorming. Now, between chat systems, research tools, workflow automation, and AI-assisted visualization, these tools are becoming integrated into creative workflows in ways that would have sounded unrealistic only a couple of years ago.

At the same time, there is still a lot of confusion around what AI is actually doing inside professional design work. Some people are convinced it will replace designers entirely, while others dismiss it as a gimmick that will eventually fade away. What I am seeing instead is that AI is becoming integrated into the workflow around the work, but it is not replacing the person responsible for the final outcome.

That distinction is important because the value in design was never simply the ability to produce an image. The value has always been judgment. It is understanding what actually makes sense for a particular client, property, budget, lifestyle, or project. It is knowing what is technically feasible, what supports the architecture, what creates emotional impact, and what can realistically be built in the real world.

Whether I am working with homeowners, builders, architects, or other design professionals, my role is still to solve problems, guide decisions, and create thoughtful, buildable work. AI can generate endless ideas, and sometimes those ideas are genuinely exciting, but it still does not reliably understand the difference between an image that simply looks interesting and a design that truly works. It can create beautiful imagery that completely ignores construction realities, functionality, budget constraints, or structural logic. That disconnect is one of the reasons I believe technical knowledge and professional judgment still matter so much.

I also think there is a misconception that these tools automatically make creative work easy or cheap. In some ways they absolutely improve efficiency, especially during brainstorming, organization, visualization, and early concept exploration. They allow ideas to move faster and remove a lot of the repetitive production work that used to consume enormous amounts of time. But they also introduce new challenges. AI-generated imagery is often inconsistent under revision, and the same prompt rarely produces the same image twice. That unpredictability becomes a real issue very quickly in professional work where revisions, coordination, technical accuracy, and client approvals matter.

For me, these tools work best when they are layered on top of a strong technical foundation rather than used as a replacement for one.

How AI Fits Into My Design Workflow

One thing I have noticed is that clients are already using AI before they even contact me. They are generating inspiration images, testing ideas, and trying to visualize what they like. I am okay with that. One of the hardest parts of the beginning of a project has always been sorting through vague ideas, Pinterest overload, HGTV expectations, and figuring out what a client actually wants. These tools can help narrow some of that down before we even begin.

Project Organization and Communication

I use AI heavily during project organization and communication. I record meetings so I can stay fully present in the conversation instead of worrying about taking perfect notes or missing something important. That allows me to focus on brainstorming, asking better questions, and really listening to the client.

Afterward, I use AI to process meeting transcripts, emails, inspiration images, and project information into organized documentation. It helps me create project scopes, wish lists, must-haves, deliverables, and summaries of client priorities and project requirements. Instead of digging through scattered emails weeks later, I have a structured system that keeps everything connected and searchable throughout the project.

Even after the drawings are complete, I continue using AI to support clients by organizing next steps, helping explain processes, identifying what consultants or trades they may need next, and quickly retrieving past conversations or decisions from the project history.

Research, Zoning, and Permit Preparation

I also use these tools during the research phase. Before design even begins, I gather zoning requirements, permit information, building department guidelines, environmental restrictions, road requirements, and applicable codes for the specific property and jurisdiction. I organize all of this into a central project thread that both I and the AI can reference throughout the process.

This has been incredibly helpful because every building department operates a little differently. AI helps me identify what the jurisdiction requires, where to look, and what documentation may be needed. I still verify everything myself, but the speed and organization are dramatically improved.

Later in the project lifecycle, I also use AI to help cross-reference notes, code references, jurisdictional requirements, and submission checklists during permit and construction documentation phases. I can compare permit applications and department instructions against my drawings to identify missing information or areas that may trigger plan review comments.

Again, I still review and verify everything myself. The software is not replacing professional responsibility. It is helping me work faster, stay organized, and reduce the chance of overlooking administrative details.

Design Exploration and Visualization

Another area where AI has become valuable is design exploration.

Sometimes I will run my 3D model through AI to explore variations of a concept I am already developing. I might test different architectural styles, materials, paint colors, furnishings, lighting approaches, or decorative details to see how various ideas could look before investing additional time modeling them. This allows me to quickly evaluate possibilities and identify directions worth developing further.

The important thing is that the AI is not creating the design for me. I am intentionally directing the process and evaluating the results. My prompts are highly specific because I am trying to answer a design question or explore a particular idea, not simply generate random imagery and hope something useful appears.

I also use AI to create 3D models when a specific fixture, furnishing, or decorative object is needed and I cannot find an existing model. In the past, I would either spend hours searching for a suitable substitute or build the model from scratch. AI can now help generate a starting point that I can refine and incorporate into my visualization workflow.

Similarly, I use AI for production tasks such as removing backgrounds from product photos, changing finishes or colors on furnishings, and testing material options during the design process. These tasks are not particularly creative, but they can be extremely time consuming. By automating some of that work, I can spend more time focused on design thinking and less time performing repetitive production tasks.

Technical Design and Drafting

Once I move into the actual design phase, the work is entirely mine.

The AI is not designing the floor plan. It is not solving circulation problems, determining proportions, creating roof lines, resolving structural concepts, or deciding how a home should function for a real family on a real site. Those decisions come from years of technical experience, design training, problem solving, and judgment.

That technical design process still matters deeply, and honestly, I think it always will.

How AI Has Changed My Rendering Process

What these tools have changed most dramatically for me is the visualization workflow.

For years, rendering involved endless hours searching for textures, building material libraries, creating entourage, placing landscaping, adjusting lighting, tweaking render settings, refining atmosphere, and trying to push images past that uncanny valley feeling that CG often had. I spent years developing those skills, and honestly, there is still a part of me that struggles emotionally with how quickly AI can now accomplish some of those tasks.

I have genuinely wrestled with feeling like I am cheating.

But at the same time, the results are better than what I was able to achieve before. The images are more cinematic, immersive, and effective at communicating design intent to clients and builders.

The difference is that those images are still built on my technical work.

I create the actual 3D model. I establish the architecture, materials, camera composition, lighting direction, and rendering foundation. Then I use AI carefully and intentionally to enhance the final presentation imagery. I inspect every image closely to make sure nothing in the design has changed, and I do not present anything that is inaccurate or misleading.

In many ways, AI has replaced the most tedious parts of rendering production while allowing me to focus more energy on the parts I actually love: designing meaningful spaces, telling visual stories, and creating emotional impact through imagery.

That is ultimately what clients are hiring me for. They are hiring me to create thoughtful, buildable designs and communicate those designs clearly through visuals that help everyone involved understand the vision.

How I Am Not Using AI

Because I have talked openly about using AI in my business, I also think it is important to be clear about where I draw the line.

I am interested in AI as a creative, organizational, and visualization tool. I use it to help explore ideas, organize information, improve communication, and streamline repetitive tasks surrounding the design process. But I am not interested in handing over professional judgment, financial responsibility, or client trust to a tool that cannot actually be held accountable.

In design, mistakes have real consequences. A missed specification, an incorrect order, a misunderstood vendor policy, or a bad recommendation can impact budgets, timelines, contractors, and client trust. The software does not carry that liability. The business owner does.

That is why I believe these tools should support professional work, not replace the parts of the process that require verification, experience, accountability, and responsibility.

I no longer offer procurement services, but I did for many years, and if I still did, I would never use unsupervised AI agents to manage vendor payments, client funds, resale certificates, tax information, or financial transactions. AI may be helpful for organizing information, drafting purchase orders, or summarizing shipping updates, but anything involving real money, legal accountability, or client financial trust still requires direct human oversight.

I also think designers need to be cautious about blindly following the fear mongering and hype cycles surrounding AI. There are now countless self-proclaimed “gurus” aggressively selling the idea that designers either need to automate everything immediately or risk becoming obsolete overnight. I simply do not believe that is true.

Interior design and home design involve an enormous amount of real-world coordination that software alone cannot fully understand. Trade pricing, freight logistics, custom orders, damages, lead times, permitting, vendor agreements, client approvals, and state-specific requirements are not minor details. They are the business.

A platform can look impressive in a demo and still lack the structure needed to responsibly support a professional design practice.

That is why I advise caution with unproven platforms, especially those developed without deep understanding of how the design industry actually operates. Clever technology alone is not enough. A professional workflow requires secure systems, clear accountability, thoughtful processes, and tools built around the realities of real projects and real clients.

I also advise caution around the legal side of AI platforms. Many tools place the responsibility for AI-generated mistakes entirely onto the user. Designers need to understand that before blindly integrating software into their businesses. If a company cannot clearly explain how its systems work, how data is handled, or who is accountable when something goes wrong, that deserves scrutiny.

And finally, I do not believe designers should take on financial risk chasing experimental technology. I would never encourage another designer, client, or colleague to go into debt, finance expensive subscriptions on high-interest credit cards, or make reckless business decisions in pursuit of the latest AI trend. Good technology should strengthen a business, not make it more fragile.

Why Human Judgment Still Matters

For me, responsible AI use comes down to this: I want tools that help me think more clearly, communicate more effectively, stay organized, and visualize ideas more efficiently. I do not want tools that remove human judgment from the parts of the process where judgment is the whole point.

At the end of the day, I still care about the same things I always have. I care about thoughtful design, technical problem solving, storytelling, communication, and helping clients truly understand a space before it is built.

AI can absolutely be useful, and it can absolutely improve workflows. But in a professional design practice, it still needs guardrails, transparency, and human oversight.

My goal has never been to replace the design process. My goal is to use the best tools available to create thoughtful, buildable designs, communicate them clearly, and help clients move forward with confidence.

The technology will continue to evolve. The responsibility for the work still belongs to the designer.