Featuring insights from Lauren Lerner, Principal Designer & CEO of Living with Lolo
Artificial intelligence is changing how businesses operate, and the interior design industry is no exception. But for designers who have built their businesses around creativity, personal relationships, and thoughtful attention to detail, the question isn't necessarily whether AI belongs in the design process, it's where can AI make a difference?
While much of the conversation around AI in interior design focuses on rendering technology and image generation, some of its most practical applications are happening behind the scenes.
As recently highlighted in Business of Home’s “10 Simple Ways to Start Using AI in Your Firm”, AI offers opportunities to streamline the operational responsibilities that keep a design business running, from developing proposals and managing procurement to organizing client communications.
For Lauren Lerner, Principal Designer & CEO of Living with Lolo, a Scottsdale, Arizona interior design and design-build firm, the opportunity lies in using technology to support her team's work rather than replace the expertise that makes it valuable.
Her approach offers a useful starting point for interior designers and business owners who are interested in AI, but aren't sure how to introduce it into their daily operations.
Why Should Interior Designers Consider Using AI?
Running an interior design business requires much more than designing beautiful spaces. Behind every project are hours spent preparing proposals, communicating with vendors, tracking orders, organizing project information, coordinating installations, and managing client expectations. These responsibilities are essential, but they also compete for the time designers need to focus on creative decisions, client relationships, and business growth.
AI can help interior design firms reduce repetitive administrative work, organize information, and improve operational efficiency without replacing the designer's creative judgment.
Rather than approaching AI as a complete business transformation, firms can begin by identifying the recurring tasks that require significant time but relatively little creative decision-making.
Lauren and her team at Living with Lolo offer three practical examples.
1. Creating Interior Design Proposals
Proposal development is an important part of the client experience, but it often involves gathering and organizing information from consultations, project discussions, and internal notes. AI can support this process by helping teams summarize information, organize project requirements, and prepare initial proposal materials.
For an interior design firm, this can mean:
Reducing time spent organizing consultation notes.
Creating more consistent proposal frameworks.
Identifying important project details and scope requirements.
Streamlining internal communication during the proposal process.
The goal isn't to have AI independently determine a project's scope, pricing, or creative direction. Those decisions still require the experience and judgment of the designer. Instead, AI can help prepare and structure the information so the team can spend more time refining the proposal and developing the client relationship.
2. Streamlining Procurement and Project Management
Procurement is one of the most detail-intensive parts of running a full-service interior design firm. From tracking orders and managing shipping updates to coordinating freight deliveries and following up on damaged items, the administrative work can become substantial as project volume increases.
AI-supported workflows can help teams organize and monitor information related to:
Vendor communications and order confirmations.
Tracking numbers and shipping updates.
Estimated arrival dates.
Freight and installation logistics.
Damaged products and follow-up requirements.
For a busy design studio, having this information organized and easier to access can reduce the time spent searching through emails and manually tracking updates. It can also help team members identify outstanding tasks and maintain better visibility across active projects. The benefit is not simply working faster. It's creating more space for the team to focus on decisions that require their experience and attention.
3. Organizing Client Meetings and Project Notes
Client meetings often generate a significant amount of information, from design preferences and budget considerations to timelines, project scope, and next steps. Capturing those details accurately is critical to maintaining a successful client experience. At Living with Lolo, Lauren's team records Google Meet conversations, creates transcripts, and brings that information into its internal system.
AI can then support the process of turning those conversations into organized, actionable information.
For example, firms can use AI to help:
Summarize meeting discussions.
Identify next steps and action items.
Organize client preferences and project requirements.
Prepare information for follow-up communications.
Support proposal development and internal coordination.
This approach helps keep important information accessible while reducing the administrative work that follows client meetings. Of course, client privacy and confidentiality remain essential. Firms should obtain appropriate recording consent and use tools and processes that protect sensitive project and client information.
How Can Interior Designers Start Using AI?
For design business owners who haven't yet incorporated AI, the most effective approach may also be the simplest.
Start with one repetitive task rather than attempting to automate an entire workflow.
Consider where your team spends the most time on administrative responsibilities. Are client meeting notes taking hours to organize? Is proposal preparation becoming repetitive? Are important procurement updates scattered across multiple email threads?
Choose one area, evaluate the available tools, and determine whether AI can help make that process more efficient. Begin with a small pilot, review the outputs for accuracy, and establish clear guidelines for how your team should use the technology. As the process becomes more familiar, you can identify additional opportunities to integrate AI into your operations.
The priority should always be to support the people behind the business, not remove the human expertise that clients are hiring you to provide.
What AI Means for the Future of Interior Design Businesses
The conversation around AI in interior design will continue to evolve, but its value shouldn't be measured solely by what it can create. For many firms, its greatest potential may be in what it allows their teams to spend less time doing.
At A Design Partnership, we work with interior designers, architects, and home brands to strengthen their positioning, build visibility, and communicate the expertise behind their businesses. One of the most important parts of that work is recognizing how design professionals are evolving, not only creatively, but also in the way they build, manage, and grow their firms. Lauren's approach at Living with Lolo demonstrates that adopting new technology doesn't have to mean changing the foundation of a business. It can simply mean finding smarter ways to support it.
The opportunity for interior designers isn't to let AI do the designing. It's to use AI to create more time for the work that only designers can do.
Learn More From Living with Lolo
Want a closer look at how Lauren Lerner and her team are approaching AI in their design business?
Explore the companion article from Living with Lolo, featuring additional insights into their experience incorporating AI into everyday studio operations.
Read More From Living With Lolo
About A Design Partnership
A Design Partnership is a public relations and marketing firm specializing in interior designers, architects, and home brands. Through strategic communications, media relations, brand positioning, and digital marketing, ADP helps design businesses strengthen their authority, increase visibility, and reach the audiences that matter most.