As artificial intelligence usage climbs and creative industries grapple with the rapidly evolving technology, interior design professionals are embracing the tool, seeing AI less as a hindrance and more as a useful tool, according to a new study.
Over the course of 2025, a majority of interior designers polled (82%) reported using AI “regularly,” according to an inaugural “State of AI and Interior Design Report” from 3D design platform Mattoboard. For its report, the Las Vegas-headquartered company polled 328 interior design professionals from more than 70 countries, with 56% having six or more years of experience, and 21.6% being junior designers or students.
Professional organizations, such as the American Society of Interior Designers, are also seeing their membership embrace AI. For its 2025 Trends Outlook report, the society observed that AI-driven tools are “playing an increasingly important role in making spaces more efficient, personalized, and environmentally conscious,” CEO Khoi Vo said in an email.
“Practically speaking, firms are using AI platforms for early-stage ideation and visualization (concept sketches, mood boards, layout ideas, early renderings), as well as to explore smart home integration, sustainable materials, and building performance,” he wrote. Beyond that, Vo noted, “AI's significance extends beyond creative endeavors;” society is also seeing design professionals lean on AI for day-to-day business operations, including hiring and recruitment, bookkeeping, materials sourcing, and deadline management.
Mattoboard’s report also found designers relying on AI for productivity, with 67% deploying the technology to help visualize designs and 57% appreciating the efficiency it provides. According to the survey, 85% of designers favored ChatGPT, although some used design-forward alternatives, including Canva, Photoshop and Midjourney.
These tools are accelerating early-design phases — conceptualization, visualization, and client presentation, Vo explained, allowing firms to compress the time spent on “tedious tasks” and invest more work in “high-value work: shaping the creative vision, building human relationships, designing for wellness and sustainability.”
AI lends interior designers a practical hand, but concerns remain
Although AI adoption is increasing broadly among interior designers, it’s an uneven embrace.
Seventy-seven percent of designers aged 55 to 64 years old relied on AI visualization, and these industry veterans were more likely to report satisfaction with the technology. Younger designers, on the other hand, were more likely to report AI anxiety, with 66% of young designers expressing concern about artificial intelligence impacting originality, despite these young designers leading in daily AI use, according to Mattoboard.
That tension between hope and hesitation is pervasive in Vo’s membership, too. While the technology could help designers prototype, optimize and conduct post-occupancy reviews with new alacrity, AI’s performance hinges on the sophistication of its algorithm, and the technology comes with its own pile of potential costs.
“Recent data shows many designers worry about plagiarism, bias and the risk of homogenized design outcomes,” Vo said. “Those concerns are real and worth taking seriously. AI can accelerate ideation, but it cannot fully understand the lived experience of a space, the sensory nuances, or the cultural and emotional intelligence that designers bring.”
Still, Vo noted, the trade group is bullish on how AI could support interior designers — just not on its ability to replace them.
“AI is powerful, but we acknowledge that it’s fundamentally just a tool,” he said. “AI may reshape our workflows, but it will never replace the human heart of design.”