Sustainability of the Interior Design Profession in a Changing Landscape
By: Annie L. Johnson, ASID, RID
The interior design profession is currently getting rocked by waves from AI (artificial intelligence), consumer shop-ability online and numerous entrants to the field with little training or experience. AI tools now generate photo-realistic renderings of finished spaces in a matter of seconds. An algorithm from an online marketplace can populate endless purchasing options (including direct-to-buyer “trade sources”) in even less time. Additionally, trendy photos splashed across social media can launch a new interior design business. How do we navigate these influences and ensure sustainability of the interior design profession without discarding them as hype or “throwing in the towel?”
To be fair, these challenges are not unique to the interior designer profession. Thanks to the World Wide Web, we have all kinds of self-proclaimed experts dispensing advice on legal/health/financial matters and the like for the low cost of a “subscription fee.” We are living the wild west of the technology era in a truly buyer-beware market. So, as interior designers, we need to remember who we are as professionals while treating technology as tools rather than threats to better serve our clients and our profession.
Seasoned interior designers know that our role is crucial to help clients get from point A to point Z, and there are myriad problems we solve along the way. We first create the vision by intently listening to our client and then visualizing the desired outcome through skilled space planning, drawings, renderings, selections, revisions and confirmations. We help clients select a great team to execute this vision and then walk beside them through the dust, debris, delays and pivots to eventually arrive at each project’s glorious end. Client service, people management, listening, communication, empathy, encouragement and building trust are human qualities that AI cannot produce. They are also marks of professionalism and insightful wisdom gained from hard-earned experience that cannot be faked with insta-posts and pretty photos (often belonging to others). While some may be initially fooled, most clients will not hesitate to fire an interior designer when their project goes off the rails due to inexperience and poor execution.
Sadly, by the time a project turns sour, much of the client’s time and money has been spent and wasted. These days in particular, new entrants to the interior design industry are learning at the expense of their clients. This erodes public trust and harms the interior design profession at large. It is sad when clients learn at their own expense by spending dollars to save pennies, having to fix costly mistakes or not getting the best bang for their buck. We need to continue educating others that our interior design expertise saves them many a headache and protects their investment. We must explain that our relationships with trusted vendors and tradespeople will solve problems far better than faceless internet transactions or relying on Google reviews and cold calling to hire strangers into their home. We must show that our professional focus among the ASID community is on mentoring and the importance of qualified and supervised work hours serves both our industry and the public.
Finally, we need to face the changing landscape by boldly embracing technological changes and engaging in it to communicate our value and demonstrate our expertise as creative professionals. In the same way that we might incorporate color trends and new home products into our projects, we also need to understand how new technology bolsters our work and improves efficiency, organization, creativity and engagement. So much can be accomplished online that not only saves time and money but can increase efficiency and profit. Let’s make our goal to stay curious and practice what we preach in the eyes of the public and especially with those who follow us, online and beyond.