Ask anyone who attended this year’s Workspace Design Show what the defining theme was and you’ll find the same answer: it was the use of AI throughout entire commercial interior project lifecycles, from the first flash of inspiration right through to specification, procurement and delivery.
At Design Tonic, we've been watching this shift closely - and we’ve also been experimenting to find out where AI genuinely adds something meaningful to our process, and where it doesn't.
Because the question worth asking isn't whether to use AI; it's how we can use it in a way that makes the work better, without losing any part of what makes our out-of-this-world commercial designs great.
Here's our honest take on AI from design concept to project completion; plus a chance to experience one of the tools we're most excited about for yourself…
The Design Tonic AI moodboard in action
Where AI is genuinely a gamechanger
For us, the most interesting applications of AI in commercial interior design aren't the flashy ones - they're the places where it removes friction, offers up options and gives design teams more room to focus on the decisions that really matter.
Inspiration and early concept exploration
The earliest stages of a commercial interiors project are often the most exciting, and the most open.
With endless directions that a design can go in, it’s here that the creative conversation is at its most alive - and where the real question is how to channel that energy into a clear, shared vision as quickly as possible.
And AI tools are a great help to do exactly that.
By processing briefs, preferences and visual references quickly, it’s easy to generate concept directions that give clients something immediate and tangible to respond to, so conversations and decisions can be reached faster but still be based on great information.
This is exactly the thinking behind our new AI moodboarding tool, now live on the Design Tonic website.
Tell it about your space, your colour preferences, your must-haves and your vibe, and it generates bold, inspirational concept visuals that bring your brief to life; ready to refine and share with anyone you need to get on board early.
It's obviously a starting point, not an endpoint.
But it's a starting point that can save weeks of back-and-forth and arrive at the right conversations faster - and if you haven't tried it yet, it's well worth a few minutes of your time.
Looks from the new Design Tonic AI moodboarding tool - click here to try for yourself
Spatial planning and scenario testing
AI-assisted planning tools can now model how a floorplan will work in practice, meaning you can test things like occupier densities, furniture layouts, flow of traffic and zoning before you commit to anything in real life.
We’ve found that, from a client's perspective, this can feel genuinely different and refreshing.
Rather than waiting for a single layout recommendation to come back and reacting to it, they’re fully immersed in the process - seeing multiple scenarios side by side, understanding the trade-offs between them and coming to decisions with far more clarity around why one direction might work better than another.
And for design teams it’s good news too, because it means more time spent on the creative and strategic thinking that AI can't do, and less on the iterative groundwork that it can - while being able to provide clients with recommendations that can be tweaked easily and create fewer surprises later in the project.
Specification checking and measurement validation
One of the less glamorous but genuinely valuable applications of AI in office refurbishment is in the detail.
AI tools are proving their worth in catching errors in the accuracy of specifications and detecting clashes between a briefed design and the fabric of a building - the kind of issues that, if they make it to site, cost a lot more to resolve than they would have at the design stage.
It's no replacement for the experienced judgement of a skilled designer or project manager.
But as a rigorous second-check on a complex commercial fit out, it's fast becoming a key asset for a well-run project.
Supply chain and procurement planning
Further down a project’s timeline, AI can also make a real difference in furniture planning, lead time modelling and procurement logistics, especially on projects with tight programmes and/or complex sourcing.
Being able to model what happens if a key product has a longer lead time than expected, or if a material specification needs to change mid-project, means that teams can anticipate around issues in advance and keep projects moving without the kind of delays that can ripple through a programme and affect everyone involved.
It might be a less glamorous application of the technology but, in a sector where time really is money, we think it’s one of the most commercially significant for us and our clients.
Adapting spaces as businesses evolve
And the role of AI doesn’t necessarily end when a project does, either.
As businesses grow, restructure and adapt to new ways of working, the spaces they occupy need to evolve alongside them - and AI tools are brilliant for modelling how existing fit outs can be reconfigured to meet changing requirements, whether that’s testing new layouts, repurposing zones or pinpointing the places where investment would bring the most bang for its buck.
For landlords especially, this has really interesting commercial implications around the long-term performance of an asset across multiple tenancies, making it far easier to ensure your well-designed, flexible office refurbishment has the longevity you need.
Out-of-this-world design IRL - Design Tonic X 26 Digital
What AI doesn't change
For all its capability, AI is only as good as the brief it's given and the hands it's in, and there's a lot it simply can't do too.
It can generate concept visuals, but it can't spend time with a team and understand what their culture actually feels like, or what the people inside a business really need from their space every day.
It can check and validate a specification, but it can't make the instinctive, experience-led judgement calls that are the difference between a fit out that functions and one that looks and feels out-of-this-world.
And it can test scenarios at speed, but it can't draw on the knowledge that comes from hundreds of completed projects: the accumulated understanding of what works, what doesn't and why.
At Design Tonic, our team has always led with creativity, innovation and deep expertise, and better tools won’t ever change that - we’re using them to support it.
For us, any use of AI is just to give us a stronger scaffolding around the decisions that matter most: faster exploration at the early stages, rigorous checking through the detail and strong, tangible, visual evidence to showcase our recommendations.
And the Design Tonic spaces themselves - the ideas, the vision, the out-of-this-world environments that our clients love?
They still are, and always will be, a human endeavour.
Design visions brought to life at Design Tonic X Handelsbanken Bolton
The conversation starts here…
Whether you're a landlord planning your next office refurbishment or an occupier beginning to imagine what your ideal workspace could look like, there's never been a better - or easier - time to start planning your vision.
Our AI moodboarding tool is free to try, takes just a few minutes and might just surface a direction - a colour, an atmosphere, a spatial feeling - that becomes the seed of something out-of-this-world.
And when you're ready to take that vision further? Our team is on hand, and would love to help bring your ideas to life.
