Wayfair takes the generative AI route to interior decoration to help customers decorate their spaces

Google apps are proof enough that generative AI can permeate any aspect of our existence, especially those involving virtual tools. Augmented reality greatly simplified major purchase decisions for furniture, but generative AI is poised to make its way into interior decoration and planning as well. We are now learning about furniture and decor brand Wayfair’s attempt at using generative AI to help customers decorate their spaces with a new tool called Decorify.

Wayfair is a relatively modern entrant in the home furnishing and decor space, founded in 2008. The company’s new AI utility called Decorify tries to automate the process of furniture selection to a successful extent, albeit not perfectly replacing the interior decorator you wish you could afford. However, the feature is free to use and doesn’t even limit how many styles you can experiment with.

Presently available only as a web app on mobile and desktop, Decorify needs pictures of the space you want to decorate. Then you can choose the type of room you’re decorating and the style you want it in, from options such as Bohemian, mid-century modern, industrial, and modern. Decorify then leverages generative AI to create photorealistic images of the space complete with furniture and decor items from Wayfair. Customers can then shop the displayed furniture directly from the Decorify interface.

Such technology has wide-ranging applications like when you’re moving into a new home or office and want to style it with new furniture. Wayfair says you can even use Decorify’s generative AI to selectively replace a single item in your room, conveniently bypassing the mental blocks you have in place when you go furniture shopping.

All this sounds fun, but The Verge went hands-on with Decorify and the findings were not so utopian. The tool can only decorate living rooms, and sometimes shows weird reflections in curtains or randomly places plants where they should not be. It can also presume your room is larger than it is.

However, Wayfair imagines this will become a powerful tool for its customers in the future, allowing them to start with a list of products first, and then use generative AI to incorporate the selected products in their space. Decorify may have limited options right now, but if it is optimized and strikes a chord with furniture shoppers, the novel concept could have a bright future, maybe even replacing AR. It is still early days for generative AI in consumer applications.