The initial craze over AI tools like ChatGPT has calmed to a state in which many companies have now incorporated a suite of AI workflows into their everyday routine. And it’s become clear in all industries, interior design included, what tasks ChatGPT excels at, and what it struggles with. Perhaps a more specialized AI tool could handle it, but ChatGPT’s accessibility, fame, and cost have made it a go-to for many professionals looking to outsource some of their less-enjoyable tasks. Let’s take a look at some popular use cases for ChatGPT and see what it can and can’t do for you.
Content Planning
The early planning stages of content creation are where ChatGPT is at its strongest. If you’re at square one, you can ask ChatGPT to analyze your existing website content and give it context about your business and industry, and it can generate a list of keywords or keyword phrases. These keywords will help you brainstorm blog posts, as well as keep you focused on what topics resonate most with your audience.
With the help of these keywords, you can then ask ChatGPT to generate a list of blog topic ideas. It’s helpful to also include any blog categories that you want to use.
Content Generation
ChatGPT is an LLM, or Large Language Model. Stringing together words should be its bread and butter. To a certain extent, that is true. However, the full answer is a bit more complicated.
ChatGPT can write an entire blog, and it will likely be competently written, well-structured, and full of useful information. If you do generate a blog post with it, be sure to double-check any claims or data that it pulls, as it can incorrectly reference or present information.
There is a potential reason to avoid using AI-generated blog posts, though. Google has stated that AI-generated content does not negatively impact search engine optimization, or how your website ranks in a Google search. However, that AI-generated content still needs to be high quality. It should present information accurately, be original, and add value. Creating unoriginal content won’t help your website, whether it’s human-made or AI-made. So, no keyword-stuffing, poor writing, or over-generating too much content. AI-generated blogs can be a good way to create content when time is limited, explore a wider range of topics, and stay relevant.
One of AI’s strengths is reimagining the information that you give it. So, whether you have it write a blog or you write one yourself, you can have ChatGPT suggest ways to reuse that content by organizing it into short-form video scripts, creating social media posts, or creating deeper articles about some of the blog’s subtopics.
Social Media
Once a blog is written, ChatGPT can write a social media post, summarizing the article in a couple of snappy sentences, grabbing relevant emojis, and creating a call to action. Make sure to provide information about your brand voice so that the language fits your style. AI generally does a good job of summarizing content, and a social media post is just a summary presented engagingly!
Additionally, you can use ChatGPT to generate a content strategy that includes ideas for content themes, posting frequency, and hashtags. Depending on how much data you’ve given it, it can possibly generate some or all of the posts. Just make sure to edit these to check that the posts share accurate information and that they do so in your brand voice.
You’ll need to engage with comments on social media on your own, however. Some questions or comments can be dealt with with auto-replies, but it’s important to reply to some comments with personalized messages that show that a human is actually reacting to them.
Client Communication
If you have a lot of emails to reply to, clients to onboard, and descriptions to write, ChatGPT can be helpful. You can use it to draft email templates and responses to common inquiries. Though it’s a good idea to edit these to make sure they are written in your brand voice.
ChatGPT is not, however, a replacement for building real relationships. Make sure that you’re not relying on it to communicate for you entirely. Instead, use it to make sure you get all of the necessary information into a communication and to check your tone. A real, nuanced conversation needs the human element. If you’re dealing with a complex issue, then you can use ChatGPT to help check your tone so you don’t risk saying something too harsh, or that could be misinterpreted. But the original thoughts need to come from you if you want to form a valuable relationship with a client.
Workflow and Project Management
If you think you’ve forgotten something or want to be more thorough in your work, then ChatGPT can help provide outlines for workflows and project management. It can generate thorough checklists for projects, outlines for client meetings, and SOPs (standard operating procedures) for common tasks. Because SOP templates are fairly common, ChatGPT can draw from this existing content and adapt it to your unique needs with relative ease.
Of course, when it comes to the actual project and strategic decisions, that is up to you. ChatGPT can be a great assistant to outsource some admin work to, but ultimately, you still must execute your vision and plan using human creativity. Also, unless you have every inner thought documented, the AI will not know every in and out of your business, its strengths, and its limitations. You’ll need to modify some aspects of the plans and documents to reflect aspects of your business that ChatGPT missed.
Visual Design Work
ChatGPT can make a poor attempt at visual elements like mood boards, floors plans, and renderings. It’s limited in its ability to make sense of physical space, scale, and perspective. It can’t replace a real 3D modeling or floor plan design tool. And you wouldn’t want to outsource this work to AI anyway, because your creative design work is the reason why a client would choose you over another designer. Don’t rob yourself of your unique value, even for an early draft!
Always remember to treat ChatGPT like an assistant rather than your boss or a consultant. Your own ideas are infinitely more valuable than anything it can generate! You got this far through your own strategic vision, so trust that. Use AI tools like ChatGPT to augment your knowledge and skills by having it double-check your work, do admin and busy work, and overall enhance your role. It can be a powerful support tool, but it is only that: a tool.