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Will architects and interior designers lose their jobs to artificial intelligence?

Artificial intelligence has made great progress in recent years, so that it is able to perform many tasks and creative works that were only reserved for humans, such as programming, drawing, decoration and others, but this rapid progress raises many concerns about controlling many jobs, as Investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted in March that artificial intelligence could replace the equivalent of 300 million jobs globally across all industries.

Architecture is among the industries most at risk, with researchers estimating that 37% of engineering and architecture tasks “can be done by AI.” Will architects and interior designers really lose their jobs to AI? This is what we will know in the next article, but we will first know the role played by architects and decorators, and how is artificial intelligence used in this field now?

What is the role of architects and decorators?

Many years ago, architects were also designing interiors, but with the development of technology and social life, the need for interior designs appeared in different purposes, and then new disciplines emerged as architects usually deal with everything related to the structure of a building, and focus on more technical aspects. Such as building shape, orientation, materials, etc.

While interior designers focus more on human needs, space functions, aesthetics, and on space planning, creating cohesive and aesthetically pleasing designs for homes and businesses within a built environment or existing structures, an interior designer designs different rooms to suit a specific lifestyle and homeowner's preferences, because architecture Interior, in short, “is the art of adding meaning to empty space.”

Interior architects are people who are not authorized to make changes to the structure of a building, but they have an artistic sense and have a broad view on aesthetics, assisting clients with color combinations, furniture selection and accessory decisions for use in interiors.

How is AI being used in design and architecture today?

Artificial intelligence is already used in architecture, as it is used in several applications as basic programs in this field, which led to a quantum leap in engineering performance, and contributed to saving time and effort very much, in addition to providing the possibility of teamwork and remotely on a single design and through various engineering disciplines. .

A group of websites made it possible to take advantage of artificial intelligence technology in architecture, and the following are some applications and uses of artificial intelligence in architecture:

Artificial intelligence websites are used to generate designs

Midjourney and DALL-E-MINI are the most famous artificial intelligence sites in architecture, as these sites provide an accurate description of everything that engineers or designers imagine to obtain accurate designs, as they provide many suggestions for one description.

This can be a powerful feature for concept brainstorming. These images are also useful for reaching a wider audience and can be used in marketing and promotional materials to illustrate key design concepts and contexts.

Artificial intelligence applications to improve performance

Cove.tool, a building performance design app founded by building scientist and architect Sandeep Ahuja, uses machine learning to analyze how building designs can improve energy and carbon consumption, daylight levels, and more.

Artificial intelligence tools used in interior design

Interior AI is a virtual tool for interior designs, through which it can load one face of a room and it will provide you with design templates optimized for it.

AI is getting more and more sophisticated over time, and the same is true for these tools mentioned above. The more users are drawn to these tools, the more data insights they will have, and therefore the more sophistication they will get in the outputs of their service offerings. Will AI ever replace architects?

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Can artificial intelligence replace architects?

Through the tools we mentioned earlier and others, AI will help architects take on a broader regulatory role rather than maintaining granular control over all design decisions. How to practice architecture. Artificial intelligence will become an important tool to help architects, but many industry leaders in the architecture and construction sector believe that AI is unlikely to replace architects in the architecture and construction sector.

There are many reasons why artificial intelligence cannot replace architects. One of these reasons is that it lacks the flexible skills that are inevitable to implement an architectural project. In addition, artificial intelligence has not yet played a contributing role with other workers in the field of design. and construction.

For example, workers involved in a construction project would not be very familiar with the machine learning interface, the use of AI tools, and the lack of direct questions and answers would not be at all appropriate for current construction practices.

How do experts see the competition between AI and architects?

There were many opinions of experts about the role of artificial intelligence in architecture, and the extent to which it could assume the jobs of architects, and they included the following

It will give engineers the possibility to focus more on strategic and creative tasks

Thomas Lane reports in the May 2023 issue of Building magazine: “Artificial intelligence can do 37% of the work of architects and engineers, yet this likely means we can take on more mundane tasks and focus more on strategic and creative tasks, just like Revit, the NBS specification for digital and 3D modeling has not only overtaken the jobs of architects, but has changed the way we work, the same is likely to apply to AI tools, and new tasks related to AI management will also emerge.”

"I've been around long enough to see multiple waves of technological change in this," said Philip Bernstein, associate dean and assistant professor at Yale School of Architecture who previously held senior positions at software companies Autodesk and Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and authored books on architecture and artificial intelligence. Industry, and this argument happens every time, it happened during the inception of CAD, it happened during BIM, now it happens with AI, but somehow we always seem to survive these things.”

Bernstein argues that even the best AI systems are still a long way from the competence of a qualified architect. "I think what we do as architects is very complex," he says. It requires trade-offs, and if we're not even at the point where a car can drive itself, I think we're far from the point where AI can be a professional engineer."

It will reduce working long hours

Saudi-based architect Reem Musleh, who has carved a niche for herself in AI design, believes that AI can reduce overtime in conjunction with a broader cultural shift away from working long hours. So I really hope that with artificial intelligence, it can really give us this opportunity to live in a better balance."

It will give small businesses stronger advantages

ArchiTAG co-founder George Guida also agrees that technology will not replace architects any time soon, saying: “Our existing traditional methodology will fundamentally change, but we will not replace it, I think architects still need to stay at the heart of the industry being Leaders are in the process, so I think productivity will increase, let's say we'll have more time and space to design, I think the role of the architect will simply evolve, but not be replaced."

While they both believe developers can eventually use AI to design the simplest, most general projects in-house, Bernstein and Guida are optimistic that the technology presents an opportunity for architecture studios to charge higher fees. Technology to do a better job, maybe I can get paid more for my time."

Guida argues that this could give smaller studios that are rapidly adopting AI an opportunity to compete with larger companies. “Increasing productivity gives startups a great opportunity to gain a competitive advantage,” he says.

It will lead to fewer architects in engineering studios

As for designer Sebastian Errazuriz, who writes a book on the impact of artificial intelligence on society, he claims that 90% of architects may lose their jobs because of machines, and he believes that the main impact will be in larger companies, as he indicates that only a small handful of working architects They spend a large part of their time on creative work.

Sebastian argues that the idea that AI will enable all of these architects to stay in their jobs and simply spend more time exploring their imagination is wishful thinking: "What's likely to happen is that it's just starting to downsize in architecture studios."

His comments seem to chime with remarks made by Morphosis founder Tom Main earlier this year, who said that AI would lead to fewer architects in individual studios.

"You can't escape from it."

Regardless of the experts' opinions on the threat AI poses to jobs, all experts agreed that architects must proactively approach the technology.

While Errazuriz said: "You can't run away from it, you have to run towards it, otherwise you'll be like those people who refuse to have a mobile phone, you need to stay up to date, check the latest things that come out and incorporate them into your own team or business."

Reem hopes that any disruption to architecture jobs will be outweighed by the new opportunities offered by artificial intelligence.

And she continued, "But at the same time, I am sure that those who seize the moment and opportunity will actually get better jobs and more opportunities."