10/14/2026
A client of mine keeps bringing me AI-generated images of the rooms we're about to remodel.
I understand why. It's a way of showing me what they imagine.
But for this client, for many clients, and even for me, the sheer number of options online, in photos and AI images alike, gets overwhelming. It dilutes the design, pulls the client off track, and can derail a project entirely.
The latest image my client asked AI to generate left out a structural column and the windows on one wall. The room it pictured isn't the room we actually have.
But accuracy aside, here's the bigger difference between AI and a human designing a space for other humans: the feeling a space creates.
Anywhere a person sleeps, eats, drinks, walks, dances, sings, works, or commutes evokes a feeling. A museum, a subway station, or someone's home can feel closed off, dark, safe, light, comfortable, or clinical. You might not like it, or you might love it and not know why. That's because the way a space is designed creates those feelings in people.
The proportions of the room and the pieces in it, the lighting, the traffic patterns (the way you move through the room), the materials, the colors: each one has to be considered on its own and as part of a whole to create a feeling. And right now, that's something only a human can do. ✨
Are your clients bringing you AI images too? I'd love to hear how you're handling it.
