EP 70: Keeping Interior Design Human in a World of AI
This special episode was recorded live from the KBIS Podcast Studio, sponsored by AJ Madison Pro
Thanks for listening!
Keeping Interior Design Human in a World of AI
- AI is not the enemy — apathy is. If you do not understand something, it is very difficult to manage it. The key is awareness, not avoidance. Learn the tools, set the rules, and define your own ethical compass.
- Keep your human spark. What makes designers irreplaceable is the ability to understand history, sentiment, and the emotional energy of a space. AI can replicate images — but not intention, nuance, or the feeling of home.
- Feminine energy matters. Beyond gender, it is about nurturing balance, collaboration, and creativity. Courage, honesty, and boundary-setting are essential leadership skills in this new era.
- Analog is back. From vinyl records to stone countertops, people are craving tactile, grounded experiences. The analog revival is not regression — it is resistance to disconnection.
Sharon Sherman is the founder of Thyme and Place Design and the recipient of the KBB Person of the Year award. With decades of experience in the interior design and kitchen and bath industries, Sharon is a passionate advocate for human-centered design, ethical practice, and the irreplaceable role of emotional intelligence in creative work. She is joining Jenna as a guest instructor for Q2 of the AI for Interior Designers™ Certificate Program, where she will teach "The Ethical Designer: AI Humanization & Team Leadership" on May 8th.
Visit Thyme and Place Design ↗The Short Answer
Technology can accelerate creativity — but it is humanity that gives design its soul. Recorded live at KBIS, this conversation between Jenna and Sharon gets at what no AI model can replicate: the emotional intelligence, lived experience, and ethical judgment that define what a designer actually does. The question is not whether to use AI. The question is how to use it without losing yourself in the process.
The Ethics of AI: Setting Boundaries and "Parenting" Your Models
Sharon's framework for using AI is simple and consistent: treat it like a child. Children can run wild — they need boundaries. The same is true for AI. Left without parameters, it will drift, generalize, and occasionally produce something that has very little to do with what you actually asked for.
The way Sharon handles this is direct. She tells her AI model — which she calls Ursula — exactly what it may and may not do. No plagiarizing. No adding words she did not use. No removing words she chose deliberately. No em dashes. When it comes back with something that does not meet those standards, she sends it back and makes it try again. That is not frustration — that is training.
"If you don't understand something, it's very difficult to manage it. So even if you don't want to use it, you should at least understand it."
— Sharon ShermanThe ethical dimension goes deeper than prompt hygiene. Both Jenna and Sharon use only their own work — their own words, their own imagery — when working with AI tools. They do not feed in other designers' work. They do not use AI-generated images in portfolios and present them as executed projects. The same ethics that governed how they approached Pinterest inspiration boards and Instagram sharing apply here. The tool is new. The principles are not.
The Human Element: What AI Cannot Automate
Designers sometimes forget how significant their role actually is. You are not just choosing finishes. You are creating environments where people live, recover, connect, and feel at home. The materials you select, the lighting you specify, the spatial decisions you make — these have direct and lasting effects on human wellbeing. That is not a small thing.
What AI cannot do — yet, and arguably ever — is understand what any of that feels like. Sharon tested this directly. She asked her model how it felt about the color yellow. It paused for nearly forty seconds before offering a pat answer about the sun and daisies. When she pushed further, asking about the energetic qualities of yellow and how it makes people feel, the model worked even harder and still landed somewhere generic. That is the gap.
AI can search for sentiment. It cannot feel it. Understanding what a family heirloom means, reading the energy in a room, knowing that a 6'5" client needs different furniture than the rendering suggests — that is what designers bring. That is not replicable.
Sharon also raised an important point about new entrants to the field. AI makes it possible to generate a portfolio of images that look like executed projects without having designed a single room. That is a credibility problem for the industry. AI cannot manage personalities on a job site. It cannot execute a full scope of work. It cannot replace the judgment, relationships, and technical knowledge that come from real experience. Being clear about that — with clients and within the profession — matters.
Feminine Energy in Tech: Balance, Courage, and the Voice of Reason
Jenna and Sharon spent real time on the question of who is steering AI development and what values are shaping that direction. The short version: a technology race driven primarily by profit and speed is missing the kind of nurturing, collaborative, long-view thinking that tends to produce technology that actually serves people.
Sharon reframed this not as a gender conversation but as an energy conversation. Feminine energy — which is not exclusive to women — brings balance, intuition, and relational thinking to problems that pure analytical drive tends to flatten. Both are needed. Right now, the balance is off.
"Courage is an important word. You have to be willing to step on your own soap box — not for influence clicks, not for follows, but to protect something beyond the design industry."
— Sharon ShermanThe conversation also touched on the courage it takes to say something publicly when you know it will cost you followers or goodwill. Sharon's perspective: no one who has changed the world did it because the masses thought it was amazing. Change happens when someone stands up, says something, and accepts that not everyone will like it. That is as true inside a design practice as it is in the broader AI conversation.
The Analog Revival: Why Texture and Tangibility Are Design Essentials Now
One of the most revealing moments in this conversation came from a story Sharon told about a client who touched a stone countertop for the first time and said it felt alive. He had never experienced real stone before. He did not know what he had been missing until he felt it.
That is what is happening across design right now. People are overstimulated, digitally saturated, and quietly starving for things that have weight and texture and permanence. Vinyl records. Reclaimed furniture. Stone surfaces. Handmade objects. These are not nostalgic indulgences — they are a response to disconnection.
Designers are on the front lines of the health and wellness industry whether they think of themselves that way or not. The environments you create either support human flourishing or they do not. Tactile, grounded, analog-informed spaces are increasingly what clients are asking for — and what they need.
Sharon also made a point about the cyclical nature of all of this. Everything shifts. Technology rises, overreaches, and gets corrected. The analog revival is not a trend — it is a correction. And designers who understand that have an opportunity to lead it rather than react to it.
How to Stay Grounded While Adopting AI
Neither Jenna nor Sharon is asking designers to avoid AI. They are asking designers to use it intentionally, with personal ethics intact. Here is what that looks like in practice:
This special episode was recorded live from the KBIS Podcast Studio, sponsored by AJ Madison Pro.
Thanks for listening!
Disclaimer: This blog was written using AI as a recap from the recording then edited by the author for accuracy and details.