Let me say this from the very start — I'm an AI sceptic. Yet, that's almost why I wanted to take up an invitation from Google to spend a morning workshopping with Amir Hossein Noori, an architectural designer who also specializes in using AI in high-end architecture and interior design. I guess I wanted the answer to the question: Is using AI really going to help anyone design a better home? Burying my head in the sand doesn't mean this tool doesn't exist, and that people aren't going to use it.
The goal of the session was to learn how to better use Gemini, Google's AI assistant, and its Nano Banana Pro image creation tool. My cohort for this beginner workshop included several interior designers, so I was curious to know where they felt this tool fit into their businesses. As it turns out, before the age of AI, those three-dimensional renders of projects, used to help clients visualize their finished space based on a designer's scheme, would cost somewhere in the region of £2,000 — so not often viable for smaller design studios and clients with more limited budgets. It's likely, I'd suggest, that AI renders will be the norm for interior design studios in the next year, though most of the designers in attendance were already using them to some degree.
