AI for interior designers · Sydney

AI for interior designers: keep every selection, order and invoice in step

In most studios the creative work is a fraction of the job. The rest is the schedule: hundreds of items, each with a supplier, a lead time, a price, a client sign-off and an invoice that has to match. I help interior design studios turning over one to ten million take that load off, one small step at a time, using the systems you already run.

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Where a studio’s week actually goes

Talk to any principal of a busy studio and the story is the same. The concept is where the joy is. The FF&E schedule is where the week goes: a client who changed the dining chairs on a WhatsApp message, a supplier whose lead time slipped by six weeks, a quote that expired before anyone ordered, and a pile of supplier invoices that have to be matched to the right project and passed on at the right margin.

None of it is hard. All of it is constant, and it lands on designers and principals at the end of the day, when it is easiest to miss a line. That is exactly the kind of work AI is now good at: reading quotes, invoices and emails, matching them against the schedule, drafting the order or the update, and putting a short list in front of a person to approve.

This is not about a new platform. You keep your design software, your schedule (whether that is a studio system or a well-loved spreadsheet), Xero and your shared drive. The job is to connect AI to what you already run, so the schedule keeps itself current and your people check it instead of maintaining it.

What I’d take off your plate first

Usually a studio project system or a spreadsheet for the FF&E schedule, design and drawing software, Xero for money, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for email and files, and a great deal of client conversation on phones. I connect AI to those, rather than asking you to replace them.

FF&E schedules that stay current

Supplier quotes, product sheets and client emails read as they arrive, and the schedule updated with price, lead time and status. Changes listed each morning for a designer to confirm.

Client selections and sign-offs

Selection packs drafted from the schedule with images, prices and lead times, sent once someone has checked them, and approvals logged against each item so nothing is ordered unsigned.

Supplier orders and follow-up

Approved items turned into purchase orders in each supplier’s preferred form, confirmations matched back, and a polite chase drafted when a confirmation or delivery date goes quiet.

Freight and delivery tracking

Dispatch notices and freight emails read and matched to the item and the project, with a weekly view of what lands when, so install days are planned around facts rather than hope.

Proposals and fee letters

A brief and a site visit become a proposal and fee letter in your template, with scope and stages drawn from similar past projects. The principal sets the fee and checks the words.

Supplier invoices and client billing

Every supplier bill matched to its order and project and coded for Xero, with mismatches flagged, and client invoices for procurement and fees drafted at the margin you set.

And the admin every office has

The same work turns up in every design studio: email, spreadsheets, documents, and a Microsoft or Google setup that grew without a plan.

Invoicing and accounts payable

Supplier bills read, coded and matched to the order or the job before they reach Xero or MYOB. Mismatches drafted into an email for someone to approve. Overdue invoices chased politely, on a schedule.

Email that answers itself, nearly

The inbox triaged each morning, routine replies drafted in your tone, attachments filed to the right folder, and a short list of what actually needs you today.

Spreadsheets you stop rebuilding

The weekly report that someone copies and pastes together every Monday, produced before you arrive, with a sentence on why the number moved.

Documents and slides

Proposals, letters, reports and board slides drafted from your own templates and your own past work, so the first draft is eighty per cent there rather than a blank page.

Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, set up properly

Shared drives that make sense, permissions that match who you are now, and AI connected to mail, calendar and files the same way for everyone instead of five people doing it five ways.

Project and job tracking

Status updates written from what actually happened in email and the job system, tasks pulled out of meeting notes, and a morning brief per person of what is due.

How it works: audit, roadmap, implementation, training, support

Sold one step at a time. Each step is quoted before it starts, stands on its own, and you decide after each one whether to take the next. Most businesses your size go from the audit to a working, trained setup in three to six months.

Audit

Two weeks, fixed price. A map of every system you run, a ten-minute staff survey, a few five-minute screen recordings of the work that eats the week, and short conversations with the people who run the business. It costs your team minutes, not hours.
Roadmap

A ninety-day plan written from what the audit found: which processes first, ranked by admin removed against cost and risk, which AI plan and accounts your team should be on, and a two-page policy on what may go in. Every item has its own price.
Implementation

I build the first one or two automations inside your own Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, connected to the systems you already run. AI drafts, a person approves anything that leaves the building, and it runs beside the manual way until you trust it.
Training

Your team learns on their own work, not on demos. One standard setup for everyone, a short session per group, and one-to-one time with the two or three people who will carry it once I step back.
Support

A light monthly retainer: one call, a one-page summary, fixes, and the next routine your team worked out promoted into something the business runs. I read the AI news so your people do not have to.

Use AI without handing over your clients’ data

A studio’s files are personal in a way most businesses are not: clients’ homes, floor plans, budgets, sometimes their security arrangements and where they keep valuables. They also hold your trade pricing and supplier terms, which you would rather nobody outside the studio ever saw. None of it needs to leave your own accounts for AI to be useful.

The work happens inside your Microsoft or Google tenant on a business AI plan, with a company account for every person who uses it. Nothing goes into a free chatbot, and no order, selection pack or invoice goes to a client or supplier until a person has said yes.

The basics, every time

Company accounts on a business AI plan, never personal logins. Business plans do not train on your data.
AI connected to your own Microsoft or Google tenant, so files stay where they already live and access is revoked in one place.
A two-page policy your team can actually remember: which accounts, what may go in, what never does.
Everything I build lives in your accounts and is logged. I work from a staff login, not the master key.

Where most start

A typical first project: the FF&E schedule that updates itself

The quick win in most studios is the schedule. Supplier quotes, confirmations and freight emails are read as they arrive and the schedule is updated, with a morning list of what changed for a designer to confirm. It runs beside the manual way for a few weeks until the team trusts it. From there, supplier orders and invoice matching are usually next.

Where I work

Based in the Sutherland Shire. In person across these areas, remote everywhere else in Australia.

Sutherland Shire

Cronulla, Miranda, Caringbah, Sutherland, Gymea and around.

Southern Highlands

Bowral, Mittagong, Moss Vale, Exeter, Robertson and around.

St George

Hurstville, Kogarah, Rockdale, Sans Souci, Bexley and around.

Eastern Suburbs

Bondi Junction, Double Bay, Paddington, Woollahra, Randwick and around.

Frequently asked questions

Our schedule is a spreadsheet. Is that a problem?

Not at all. Plenty of good studios run on a spreadsheet. I work with what you have, and if a studio system would genuinely serve you better, the audit will say so with reasons.

Will AI choose products or talk to our clients?

No. The design and the client relationship stay with you. AI handles the reading, matching and drafting around them, and every message to a client waits for a person to approve it.

So many of our suppliers email PDFs in different formats. Can it cope?

Yes. Reading quotes and invoices in whatever layout a supplier sends is one of the things AI is now good at. Anything it is unsure of is flagged for a person rather than guessed.

Is this worth it for a studio our size?

If a designer or principal spends evenings keeping the schedule and the orders straight, usually yes. The audit will tell you honestly, and if a tidier spreadsheet would do, I will say so.

How much of my team’s time does this take?

Minutes, by design. Ten for the survey, ten for an optional screen recording, an hour with the key people. Whoever runs operations spends two or three hours across the first fortnight.

Do we have to commit to the whole thing?

No. Every step is quoted on its own and you decide after each one. Plenty of businesses take the audit and one project, and stop there until they see it working.

Are you tied to a particular AI vendor?

No. I lead with Claude because I think it is the strongest all-rounder for business work today, and I work just as happily with Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT or Gemini if that is what your team already uses. Everything is built so the model is one part you can swap.

Running a design studio and doing the admin at night?

Tell me what you run, how many people, and what eats the most time. I will tell you honestly whether an audit is worth it.

Tell me about your business

Tell me what you're dealing with

Three lines is plenty. I reply personally, usually within a day, and the first call is free.