Earlier this year, I explored an AI tool that wasn’t ChatGPT. The focus then was on Perplexity AI, a free AI-powered answer engine that provides accurate, trusted and real-time answers to any question. I used it to garner inspiration from furniture-specific questions to see how it responded. Keeping the focus on AI tools, this month explores two more in the form of Canva AI, rendair, Planner 5D and Google Labs.
Starting with Canva AI, described as the ‘Magic Media text-to-image generator’, the tool allows you to create custom product photography visuals, Instagram stories and promotional flyers without needing a dedicated graphic designer. You may already use Canva in some way by manually creating images for social media or other campaigns, while its innovative AI enhancement does most of the leg work for you. The tool says: “Canva AI helps you brainstorm, design and polish content in a few clicks. Chat through ideas and shape them into professional, fully editable designs in one inspiring conversation.”
So, it’s time to test. Inputting the text ‘make an image to promote a summer furniture sale’, the tool quickly generated a number of summer-themed images. It even shared some text to respond to your initial prompt. It said: “I’ve created four promotional images for your summer furniture sale! Each feature stylish outdoor furniture in bright, sunny settings with tropical vibes. The images showcase different furniture arrangements and colour schemes – from natural wood tones to vibrant oranges and blues – all perfect for capturing that summer atmosphere and drawing attention to your sale.”
Pretty nifty right?
Ok, test two. The text inputted this time was ‘create an image for a new bed brand launching in store’. This time, it focussed on the bed in a number of settings. It said in response: “I’ve created four elegant images for your new bed brand launch! Each showcases a luxurious, modern bedroom with premium beds in sophisticated settings. The images feature warm, inviting lighting and high-end showroom aesthetics that highlight the quality and style of the beds – perfect for announcing your brand’s arrival in store.”
The only drawback was when clicking on an image to then use Canva Editor, it did not allow any of the assets to be edited. This means you may need to play around with the data entry to make sure it captures exactly what you want. As a free image generator tool though, it does provide a great way to produce some stylish shots in a matter of seconds.
Next up is rendair. Following on from last month’s blog about retail display instore and the top tips that can help, I thought it would be worth surfing the web to find a tool on this subject. With rendair, this AI retail store design generator is designed to create engaging retail stores through the shopping experience. The tool allows you to visualise shelving, displays, lighting and point-of-sale areas to maximise customer engagement. However, there is one thing to note, the tool does prompt a free start-up, but appears to encourage a subscription for further usage.
Another tool is Planner5D, an AI-assisted 3D floor planner that can be used to test merchandising layouts, organise shelves and visualise new store displays before physically moving inventory. This means you can try before you commit to reshuffling your store. This one also requires an email log in
– just so you’re aware – and offers a limited free plan on items you can use. However, in as little as 10-15 minutes, you can create a floor plan and 3D design using the AI-powered software.
The tool allows you to create a customisable floor plan – this is promoted as a room in the home, but you can easily mimic your store footprint. I just stuck to a basic square to but the potential to do a simple room or commercial building is there. Once the floor plan is complete, the free plan allows access to 50% of the furniture catalogue to start placing. This should be enough to get an idea of how your store is laid out and what changes you may want to make.
Finally, this month’s AI tool search brings us to Google Labs. You may already know this, but Google has a vast supply of free AI tools and apps for anyone to use. Through Google Labs, their experimental AI product hub, they have a variety of different mini apps for various use cases. And better still, each tool/app is completely free to use. One example is an app called Pomelli that lets you create unbranded content for things like social media or ads.
If you enter your website, the tool downloads the design system and creates customs ads and content on your brand, making it specific for you. The process takes a few minutes as it learns your business, which is fine with regards to the output it then produces. Testing the platform using a number of furniture and bed retail sites (mentioning no names), it generated some interesting marketing content and ideas for social media. It’s worth sticking your website in and seeing what the Lab comes up with for your business.
As you explore some AI tools to help your business, are there any that you currently work with you want to share? If so, email me on dan@bigfurnituregroup.com and I’ll take a look too. Oh, and as a live example, the image for this article was generated using Canva AI. I went a bit mad with the prompts!