A few years ago, Jessica Nelson and Stephanie Lindsey attended a KBIS panel discussion on artificial intelligence and saw an opportunity. Inspired to implement the technology in their firm, the co-founders of Austin-based Etch Design Group promptly fell down an AI rabbit hole on YouTube, with Nelson, who worked in tech for a decade before transitioning to interiors, training herself and then her team on the latest tools. “I was so excited about it, and really liked teaching my knowledge,” she tells Business of Home. “I told Steph, ‘I feel like we need another company where that’s what I do—teach about AI—because I’m super jazzed about it.’” In 2024, the duo did just that, launching AI for Interiors.
“Working with interior design business owners was that niche that I liked the most, because I [could] help them not only onboard their teams, but train and set up their whole systems,” says Nelson. “I know what it should look like. I know what bottlenecks look like. I know what repetitive tasks look like inside of a design firm.” She now devotes nearly all of her time to the AI business.
Nelson is one of many AI consultants popping up as the technology gains traction. They have emerged to help bridge the gap between the breathless hype surrounding AI and an industry that is both tech-skeptical and harried by an onslaught of daily concerns.
For many designers, the gateway drug is the same simple task. “Everybody starts with, ‘Can I make my emails sound better?’” says Jenna Gaidusek, an interior designer and AI advisor. “That’s just the point of entry for using AI. It’s the biggest issue that people have in their day-to-day. The next thing is typically faster sourcing and being able to find product information, either using the deep research tools inside of these large language models, or using agentic browsers to search on your behalf.” Other designers come to her with the goal of staying ahead of their competitors, and she’ll work with a firm’s leadership and employees to find ways for AI to help set them apart.
The actual coaching can take many forms. Nelson’s process begins with a monthslong onboarding period, in which she performs a full audit of a firm’s workflow and determines where AI can assist. “A good portion of what I do for just the first couple weeks is solidifying their business, their brand and their voice, and then training AI on that,” she says. “Then we start building out the skills and all of the tools inside these large language models to train the team. It’s very understandable for anyone diving into AI for the first time.”
She also offers the AI Design Academy, a membership program (with a current roster of around 45 firms) that includes a monthly group coaching call, one-on-one meetings, and a daily newsletter with AI industry updates. Down the line, AI for Interiors plans to launch the “House of the Future,” an initiative that aims to guide designers in their AI usage as they design a smart home in Austin that people can walk through to see the latest tech tools in action.
Gaidusek has a quarterly certificate program, teaching engagements, one-on-one consulting, a podcast and an annual AI summit. She’s also launching a new app called AI Social Club, a digital hub where all of her workshops and resources are concentrated in one space. The hallmark of the app will be the community chat rooms, where users can interact with and learn from one another, a feature available in the free version of the app.
One of the ironies of AI coaching is that artificial intelligence is a technology that can coach the user itself—chatbots are all too happy to answer questions. Still, (human) consultants are finding real demand for their services. “I think some people are naturally more comfortable with technology, and I also think some of that is age connected,” says Alexandra Ballensweig, a digital innovation consultant. “If you’re the kind of person that likes to have both the emotional support and the thought partnership of learning a new skill or tool, then I think it’s great to have a consultant.” She teaches courses on AI tools to give designers a foundation in new software. “It depends what kind of learner you are. If you’re somebody that likes a little more hand-holding, then yes, it helps to have that kind of consulting. But if you are the kind of person that just needs to see a demo and it sparks your interest and you want to start playing, then the AI [itself] can teach you how to use it. That’s kind of the power.”
After owning a design firm for more than a decade, Nelson notes that an external expert can also help designers stay aware of what’s out there when principals simply don’t have the time to keep tabs themselves. “What they would have to do if they were truly doing it themselves is either take a good portion of time, which they don’t have, or tell someone on their team, ‘Hey, go and figure out AI, and then bring it back to us.’ And it’s just not going to happen,” she says. “They want someone to come to them and say: ‘This is what you do. This is how you do it. I’ll set it up for you. I’ll get you trained. I’ll do this from start to finish.’ That’s the convenience factor that I offer.”
That’s especially true in a field where the technology makes wild leaps month to month. Nicole Lashae Hall, founder of the strategic consultancy firm Thrive in Design, agrees. “Most brands are thinking of Claude in the same way that they have been using ChatGPT, in order to ask questions or refine things, and then it spits out an answer. But designers have a huge opportunity to use Claude Cowork specifically to automate a lot of the admin. For example, [you can] research sourcing products, organize that information in folders on your computer, put it into a mood board or a client proposal, invoice—all of those teeny, tiny tasks that you don’t even think about. You’re so used to doing it manually, and you can literally tell Claude Cowork: ‘Here’s my process.’ It creates an understanding, and then does it for you. That’s where everybody can start right now.”
So how much is an AI consultant going to cost you? The answer depends on how large your firm is, how tech-averse you are, and how far you want to go down the rabbit hole. For Nelson, there is a monthly fee for the onboarding process (which typically ranges from three to six months) that varies based on how many employees are getting trained. Membership for the AI Design Academy is another tiered monthly due (one-on-one coaching calls and multiple adjustments can send you into the top tier). Hall’s firm operates in a similar way, with different options depending on whether a firm just wants an audit and blueprint, or if they want help putting those tools into action; the monthly retainer changes based on the scope of the work. In general, expect to spend a few thousand per month for intensive coaching.
Given the opportunities that AI promises, and the rapid pace of innovations, many designers are seeing consulting as a worthy investment. “Design as an industry has always evolved. We’ve gone from hand sketching to CAD, and now AI is the next wave of what is disrupting this space,” says Ballensweig. She points to key pain points—including research content generation, written and visual content improvement, renderings, information synthesis, onboarding, and social media content generation—as just the tip of the iceberg. “What’s cool about AI is you can train it to use your own voice, and the content and work that you’ve already done, to replicate yourself in a lot of ways,” she says, noting that this opens up more time for designers to focus on the creative. “The kind of newish frontier AI that everybody’s talking about slash worried about is this agentic AI, where you can actually use AI to do work for you as an automated admin and organization [tool]. I think there are a lot of limitations, but I think this is the place where you can free up a lot of time for fun, creative work.”
It’s about balance. Ballensweig urges designers (and any other AI user) to keep the skills they already have and enjoy. “It is important to protect the parts of your process and brain that you don’t want to atrophy, that you really value working with and working in,” she says. “Things like generating your first draft of something—to me, there’s a very sacred process that happens in the unknown of, ‘How do I even start this thing?’ Facing the blank page, or the beginning of a project, or the beginning of a blog or the beginning of a design—that initial draft is best to save for you, and then work on it with AI and build on it. Defining your own creative perspective is important to think about, and if you’re the kind of person that loves drawing, I think you should still draw.”
However designers choose to incorporate the tech into their business, AI consultants foresee their roles as continuing to be useful, even as more people start learning these skills on their own. “It will always be useful to have someone guide you,” explains Hall. “If you have health issues, you can go to Google to research things, maybe self-diagnose and get yourself some over-the-counter medicine; or you can go to the doctor. The same thing is true for AI consultants. You can find information on your own, [or] you can depend on somebody who’s staying abreast of all the latest information and filtering it down to what your specific needs are, so that you can remain in your zone of genius and not feel overwhelmed.”
Gaidusek says the human aspect of a consultant is also valuable. “I’ve seen some things online where it’s like, ‘This AI job is going away.’ I just don’t believe that, because the human element is always going to be there. I personally wouldn’t want to learn from a computer screen,” she says. “I need that person to sit down with me and literally talk to me like a human being and say: ‘Here’s how I would use this, why I would use it like this—and now, let’s break that down and see what it looks like for you.’ I just don’t see AI being able to relate in the way that we do to each other.”
