Retailers and designers must train themselves up on AI technology now so that they won’t be left behind as the technology develops.
That was the stark warning from Artificial Intelligence (AI) expert Mike Bradley, speaking at this year’s KBSA conference.
Asked whether he thought AI technology will create new requirements for training, and if so, how it would affect the KBB industry, he responded: “Absolutely, I think it will have to.”
“Everyone has to take a conscious decision to realise that this is here,” he said, “so it has to be part of what they do. The KBB industry is obviously based in reality and physical space, but for everything that goes on behind that, we have to look at how we can upskill people to ensure that we’re developing in the very best way and meeting our customers needs in every single facet of what we do.
“ChatGPT has a feature called code-interpreter, which allows you to upload things like plans or PDFs, and you can ask it to analyse that and give you responses, so you can play around with asking it to change the dimensions of a space or feature.
“If you’re going to accept AI, train everybody and make sure that it happens sooner rather than later. The only other caveat to that is that things happen so quickly that things you were working on two weeks ago have already changed. So there is something to be said for research and taking one’s time. So don’t rush into it, but you definitely need to make it part of your long-term plans.
“For good or ill, AI is here, and if everyone in your organisation is using it ethically and responsibly, it will be a benefit for everybody.”
Other questions posed to Bradley focused on the recurring issue of whether AI was going to be a risk to professionals such as kitchen or bathroom designers.
When asked whether these fears were valid, he said: “It’s something to be considered, and something to be discussed. Would someone ask an AI to design their kitchen for them? Potentially. But the expert is still the expert. As humans, we’re the bridge, so nothing can happen without that expert. Is someone going to then ask the AI to navigate the whole supply chain from beginning to end, with everything else involved in that? No, it still can’t do that yet, and we’re still a long way off.”
Over the past year, AI has become one of the most-discussed industry topics amongst KBB professionals. Recently, architect Alan Crawford discussed what its use meant for KBB designers, and software solutions specialist Cyncly has discussed why it thinks AI will be a good thing for the KBB industry and consumers.