A New Crop of AI Apps Could Help Streamline Home Renovations
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab. Decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day. Washington Wise from Charles Schwab is an original podcast that unpacks the stories making news in Washington. Listen at schwab.com slash Washington Wise.
Here's your money briefing for Friday, June 14th. I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. Doing renovations to your home can be time-consuming and expensive, not to mention the endless decisions and reams of paperwork involved just to get out of the planning stages. A new crop of AI apps could streamline the process.
In general, they make the design and construction process more accessible to non-professionals. It can also be difficult to imagine what your space will look like after a renovation.
How are homeowners using AI apps to streamline home renovations?
And these apps help you visualize that. Traditionally, if you ask a designer to reimagine a space, you get a few options back like a week or more later. And these apps can generate hundreds of possibilities in minutes.
We'll talk with Wall Street Journal reporter Nancy Keats after the break.
Listen at schwab.com slash washingtonwise.
More homeowners are turning to AI apps to help plan construction and renovation projects. Wall Street Journal reporter Nancy Keats joins me. Nancy, what drove the demand for these apps?
It's AI everything these days, but it's also what's happening in the housing market. There's been a decline in construction of new houses. There's been a rapid run-up of interest rates over the past two years, and mortgage rates have been soaring. So a lot of people are deciding to stay and fix and add on to homes they already own rather than
Why has demand for renovation AI tools increased in the current housing market?
selling and buying new houses. So spending on do-it-yourself projects has gone up an enormous amount. It went up about 44% between 2019 and 2021. There's also a frustration with the expense of designers and architects. They're not available to everyone and AI is more available to people. You know, do you really need to pay someone thousands of dollars to choose a paint color or to measure your fireplace?
What do these tools do that couldn't be done before?
In general, they make the design and construction process more accessible to non-professionals. So there's long been digital design products that architects and designers use. They can turn drawings into 3D models, but... Now those models can be accessed by using text commands, which makes it more accessible for other people. It also lets people do things much faster and more efficient, and it puts it all in one place. It can also be difficult to imagine what your space will look like after a renovation, and these apps help you visualize that. There's an opportunity to type in text and get a visual image. Like I want a fireplace with a brass mantle and to see what that actually would look like using a photo of your room, which is pretty cool.
Traditionally, if you ask a designer to reimagine a space, you get a few options back like a week or more later.
What design and visualization capabilities do these AI renovation apps offer?
And these apps can generate hundreds of possibilities in minutes.
So how do these apps work? What does the user have to tell it?
The simplest are these generative AI apps, which means you input text or upload a photo and ask the app to do something and it generates an image. So that can be as simple like I did as saying, turn this bedroom into a walk-in closet. Or it can be more complicated. You can say, I want a kitchen that makes me feel like a gourmet chef and will allow me to enjoy cooking. my morning coffee in sunshine or lets me hide my appliances. There are also apps that help you measure space. So if you want to, let's say, retile a bathroom, it can calculate how many tiles will be required.
How accurate are the apps? Does the phrase measure twice, cut once still apply?
That does still apply. Everybody I spoke to said, yeah, they can measure, but it's probably like 95% precise.
How do homeowners interact with the apps — what inputs produce results?
So you're still going to need a human to go in and measure.
Are there any downsides to using these tools?
Some of the downsides that people have said is that a lot of the images kind of look generic.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:49
2
How are homeowners using AI apps to streamline home renovations?
0:49–2:25
3
Why has demand for renovation AI tools increased in the current housing market?
2:25–3:44
4
What design and visualization capabilities do these AI renovation apps offer?
3:44–4:38
5
How do homeowners interact with the apps — what inputs produce results?
4:38–5:17
6
How accurate are AI measurement and planning features for real projects?
5:17–6:27
7
What are the limitations and common mistakes of renovation AI tools?
6:27–7:31
8
How do AI platforms help coordinate contractors and estimate renovation costs?
7:31–9:16
Speakers
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