While following the Information Strategy course, I was busy with my upcoming move, the entire house had to be redecorated. Because the house is in the city center, it is relatively small, therefore we must deal with small living- and bedrooms. During the Information Strategy course, we focused a lot on GenAI, and I quickly realized that this could help me in making decisions on how to furnish my new home.
I soon saw that IKEA had launched a new AI-driven digital design experience, IKEA Kreativ in June 2022 (IKEA Launches New AI-powered, Digital Experience, 2022). This new technology gives customers the opportunity to design and visualize their own rooms from their computer or smartphone. Since the bedrooms would mostly be furnished with IKEA products, I thought this tool could help us visualize the room, so I started working with IKEA Kreativ.
My experience with visualizing the bedrooms in IKEA Kreativ was positive in general. You can scan your own room, after which various Ikea products could easily be placed, you can easily move and rotate these products. With the help of GenAI it is also possible to remove existing furniture in your scan (Marr, 2024). As a result, it was very nice to see how you could best arrange the room, and which furniture fits well together.
I also experienced a few things that could be improved when using Ikea Kreativ. Firstly, you can only make a scan of your own room from one angle, this makes it harder to fully visualize whether the furniture will fully fit in the room. If you could scan and design your whole room, according to the dimensions of the room it would help a lot. Designing your room according to the size of the room is possible when you design a PAX wardrobe. I think that integrating these systems would be useful, in order to increase the consumer experience. In addition, only furniture that is sold by IKEA is added to the AI tool, so it was not always possible (for example in the living room) to get a realistic picture of what the space will look like when fully furnished.
Ikea reports that they are just at the beginning of integrating GenAI into their consumer experience, and just launched a new Generative AI tool: AI digital assistant (Marr, 2024). I am curious about what extra features IKEA will add in the future!
References
IKEA launches new AI-powered, digital experience. (2022). IKEA. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/newsroom/corporate-news/ikea-launches-new-ai-powered-digital-experience-empowering-customers-to-create-lifelike-room-designs-pub58c94890
Marr, B. (2024). The amazing ways IKEA is using generative AI. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2024/04/05/the-amazing-ways-ikea-is-using-generative-ai/
Hey,
That is super interesting. I had completely overlooked this possibility of GenAI and I think this is a nice example of the creativity that managements across all sectors are cultivating – it seems that everyone is desperate for an application within their own business realm. Furthermore, I contemplate the actual effectiveness of the feature, considering there is only one possible perspective of the room. As a firm believer in the power of good furniture, I find myself re-assing room’s layouts constantly, and one thing I found is that changing perspectives often is crucial. This tech is so intriguing that I will definitely give it a shot, at least.
Thanks for the insight!