Let’s get one thing straight: AI doesn’t know what looks good.
It doesn’t understand “cozy.” It doesn’t feel drawn to brutalist brass sconces. It doesn’t even like anything—it’s a pattern recognition machine in a very sleek black box. But here’s the twist: that total lack of taste? It’s exactly why AI is becoming the most powerful creative partner interior designers have ever had.
AI isn’t here to judge—it’s here to generate. And in an industry where the real bottleneck isn’t ideas, but time and iteration, that’s a game changer.
From Blank Page to Infinite Possibilities—In Seconds
Anyone who’s ever stared at a blank mood board knows the hardest part of the design process is just getting started. AI doesn’t get creative block. You give it a prompt—“Warm minimalist living room with Japandi influence and low-slung seating”—and tools like Midjourney, DALL·E, or DreamBooth can generate dozens of high-quality concepts on demand.
It’s not about picking the perfect one. It’s about seeing what’s possible.
AI floods the zone with options—some weird, some wild, some surprisingly on-point. And that’s where the human designer steps in, curating, remixing, refining. Think of AI as a chaotic, endlessly inventive collaborator. It doesn’t know what works, but it sure knows how to throw ideas at the wall (and every one comes rendered in moody natural light).
AI Can’t Feel, But It Can Free You to Design Better
Designers don’t just pick pillows and paint colors. They manage clients, chase vendors, fix layouts, and rework floor plans when someone decides the couch needs to face the other way. That eats into the real design time—the strategic, emotional, creative part.
Here’s where AI steps in to clear the clutter:
- Spacemaker (by Autodesk) optimizes layouts based on things like airflow, natural light, and noise levels—before the first blueprint is drafted.
- Morpholio Board uses AI to recommend complementary materials and furniture pieces, trimming hours off product sourcing.
- AI-powered render engines deliver lifelike visuals in minutes, making presentations more impactful and decision-making smoother for clients.
Less time formatting floor plans = more time designing spaces that resonate.
Personalization at Scale (Without the Burnout)
AI may not have taste, but it does have memory. And algorithms trained on behavioral data can help designers tailor every room to the actual lives being lived in them.
Want to recommend a layout based on someone’s daily routine, lighting preferences, and ergonomic needs? AI can do that. Want to predict which color palettes evoke calm for a neurodivergent client? Machine learning models are being trained for that too.
Brands like The Landing and Interior Define are already using AI to suggest hyper-personalized design schemes and furniture configurations. This isn’t about design templates—it’s about using data to craft meaningful, responsive spaces.
The Designer’s Role Just Got More Strategic
The biggest misconception about AI in interior design? That it replaces creativity.
In reality, AI has no taste, no instinct, no emotional intelligence. That makes it terrible at design—but brilliant at supporting the design process.
Great designers aren’t being replaced—they’re being repositioned. From executors to visionaries. From layout drafters to creative directors. AI handles the grunt work and the guesswork, letting humans stay in their genius zone: storytelling, interpreting emotion, designing spaces that make people feel something.
The Real Innovation: Speed + Surprise
Here’s the real magic of working with a tasteless machine: it surprises you.
AI doesn’t have aesthetic biases. It won’t tell you that “millennial pink is over” or that “nobody does velvet anymore.” It might pair polished chrome with rattan and throw in a checkered floor—and somehow, it works. It gives you permission to see possibilities you wouldn’t normally consider. Then it’s up to you, the designer, to make them sing.
This is what makes AI a creative catalyst. Not a stylist, not a tastemaker—but a powerful, weird idea engine. The trick is knowing what to keep and what to throw out. That’s where human taste—yours—matters more than ever.
Real Designers, Real AI
This isn’t theory. Some of the biggest and boldest names in design are already blending machine intelligence with aesthetic intuition:
- Kelly Wearstler, the high priestess of “California cool meets brutalist glam,” isn’t just dabbling in AI—her studio is actively using it to jumpstart creativity. They’ve built custom AI agents to reflect their distinct aesthetic and now use generative AI to explore ideas around scale, texture, and light in the earliest design stages. It’s become a creative sparring partner—helping them iterate faster, test bolder concepts, and reimagine traditional forms. Beyond the design side, her team uses AI to transcribe meetings, scan contracts, and streamline ops—proof that AI isn’t just for pixels and palettes, but for the whole design engine.
- Boutique studio Space10, backed by IKEA, uses AI to explore concepts like “future home living.” Their work with generative algorithms lets them simulate how spaces will respond to sustainability demands, aging populations, and shifting family dynamics.
Final Thoughts
AI may not know what good design feels like—but it can help you get there faster, push past your creative limits, and build with more intention than ever before. It’s the intern who generates a hundred ideas in an hour, the assistant who optimizes your layout in seconds, the tool that gives you space to dream bigger. The future of interior design isn’t AI versus human. It’s AI + human. Cold logic + warm intuition. No taste + impeccable taste. And that combination? Absolutely stunning.
