EP 66: What’s Next for 2026 in the World of AI for Interior Designers

Written By Jenna Gaidusek

Listen to the Podcast Episode for a deeper dive

In this future-focused episode, Jenna skips the typical year-end recap and dives straight into what’s coming next for interior designers in 2026. Instead of dwelling on 2025, she breaks down the seismic shifts happening in AI, why so many firms are restructuring or closing, and how designers can stay not just relevant—but ahead of the curve.​

What you’ll learn in this episode

Why Jenna refuses to do “year in review” content and instead focuses on forward momentum, analytics, and what’s actually working for designers going into 2026.​

  • The real reasons so many small design firms are closing, and how collaboration, consulting teams, and strategic partnerships are helping others stay profitable and resilient.​

  • Why “free prompts for everyone” is harming the industry, and how to think more strategically about who you follow, what you support, and how you protect your expertise.​

  • How AI is changing from simple chat and image tools into full-on custom apps, dashboards, and systems built by designers, for designers—with workflows tailored to real design processes.​

  • A peek inside Jenna’s AI App Studio, including examples like proposal builders, paint schedule generators, and other tools that eliminate repetitive tasks and cut hours off your week.​

  • What “agentic AI” actually means in plain language, and how agents and multimodal tools (text, images, audio, video, documents) will soon be quietly embedded into almost everything you use.​

  • How leading studios are using AI to augment, not replace, creativity—like training models on a designer’s lifetime of sketches to rapidly generate new product ideas and prototypes.​

  • The critical difference between designers who let AI flatten their voice and designers who use AI to amplify their originality, storytelling, and thought leadership.​

  • Why 2026 is the year to take tech into your own hands, reduce bloated subscriptions, and start building (or using) bespoke tools that you own and control.​

  • Powerful reflection questions to ask yourself over the holiday break about your process, pricing, deliverables, ideal clients, and how AI can support the business you actually want to run.​

Key themes Jenna covers

Protecting the profession: Why Jenna gates certain content, focuses only on professionals, and refuses to hand powerful tools to homeowners in ways that undermine designer livelihoods.​

  • Building your own ecosystem: How an industry-owned AI app studio can help designers cancel unnecessary tools, centralize workflows, and keep data and innovation inside the design community.​

  • Redefining “tech person”: Why some of the best adopters of AI are self-described “non-techy” creatives who see new possibilities, not just new software.​

  • Owning your uniqueness: What it really means to stop following trends, set them instead, and use AI to speed up execution—not to copy what’s already all over Pinterest.​

Mentioned in this episode

Google Gemini / DeepMind and multimodal, agentic AI flows.​

 
Disclaimer: This blog was written using AI as a recap from the recording then edited by the author for accuracy and details.
 
 
Jenna Gaidusek
Next

Ep 65: We’ve Hit the AI Tipping Point (And No, It’s Not Replacing Interior Designers)