AI Design: Mi casa

Undertaking a design challenge isn't something we do often. For homeowners, a "refresh" of your living space happens every 3-5 years.

Connie Connors
September 22, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Design Tools for the Rest of Us

Is an oxymoron. There are more than 10,000 digital design tools — or applications with some elements of design built in — available for “average” consumers today. For most of us, Google’s Gemini, Flash 2.5, aka Nano Banana (demonstrated in one of my newsletters) is fine if you want to see what a new paint color looks like or the new angle a sofa in a Feng Shui moment.

I’ve found that even the simplest of design tools require some combination of logic and aesthetics. With many AI apps, you can’t really “play” without paying. Many are developed by techies who aren’t really in tune with actual customers.

I tried Rendera.ai, experimenting with this den in a former family home in Palm Desert. It’s an odd room, and I didn’t really give the app much guidance. Had I known that my free tries were limited, I would have thought through my instructions more. This is the case with most new AI apps.

The results were dismal. To be fair, so was the room to begin with. The app didn’t take into account that it had put another chair in front of the doors to the room.

Just as I realized that I needed to give it more info, my two free designs were up.

The App that “Should” Intuitively Know You

There are AI-powered consumer applications for every imaginable task. At this stage, it’s still a big, ongoing experiment. And you’re a guinea pig. The technology is nascent and not fail-safe. Just when we thought we might be over yelling at our computers, the frustration escalates. “No, you fool, that’s not what I told you. Can’t you look at the other question I asked you last week? Have you learned nothing?” My advice as always is take a walk. Upon your return, you may be lucky enough to have received an endearing “welcome” letter from the CEO of one of these tiny AI startups. Smile. Even if it’s a form letter (it doesn’t feel like it because most are so informal) know that it comes from a super passionate founder who really cares. And if you ask, they’ll probably give you a refund for the $4.99 you accidentally paid.

Looking at Screens

I recently bought a new laptop with an OLED screen. Not that I knew or cared what that meant. Until I turned it on. Wow: the contrasts, the light, the brightness and clarity. It’s a Lenovo computer; OLED screens aren’t yet available on Macs. I won’t go into the history or science of display technology, but it’s fascinating. As with all evolving technologies, there are downsides today, such as power usage, but in the long run, OLED may promise to be more energy-efficient than anything available today. Just know that you will start to recognize OLED screens as they’re coming to a TV and a car navigation screen near you soon.

Most of you are concerned about AI’s growing power demands and its environmental impact, so understanding the role of nuclear energy is key to seeing the bigger picture of our clean energy future. Nuclear power is reliable and always on. A tiny amount of uranium fuel can provide an enormous amount of electricity with a much smaller footprint than that of solar and wind. Here’s why:

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are the small footprint game-changers. Unlike traditional mega plants, these are built in a factory and shipped to data center sites, making them faster and cheaper to deploy. Microsoft, and I believe Amazon, are exploring these to power their next-gen data centers.
Fusion Energy: While still developing and very experimental, fusion will offer a clean limitless energy source by mimicking the sun (yes, and in recent tests in China, it’s referred to as an “artificial sun” reactor).

Until Next Time

Stay curious, know that design is in the eye of the beholder, own your sense of style and confidently know that almost perfect is always enough.

Connie

UP NEXT: I try to commit to a topic, but sometimes the things I try are too new to recommend. However, I am going to dive into Comet this week because it’s on a whole other level of AI for the rest of us.