Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a growing tech trend within the furnishing space. From imagery and text to enhancing the customer experience, AI is proving to be a powerful tool for furniture and bed retailers. Over the last year or so, Big Furniture Group has reported on some companies adopting AI, some providers of different AI tools and also how the AI landscape is evolving.
This month’s blog is all about AI, sharing some of those stories above, while taking a closer look at some of the main benefits. So, where to start? How about with this description:
“AI in retail can help improve demand forecasting, inform pricing decisions, optimise product ordering and placement, and track data from online channels to inform e-commerce and digital promotion strategies. AI in retail can also help recognise customer intent and optimise the buying journey accordingly.” – from intel.com.
It’s a bit of a mouthful I must admit, but the statement does touch on some key points if AI is incorporated correctly. Take IKEA for example. The retailer uses an AI-driven product recommendation system that creates a “seamless and enjoyable shopping experience” for customers while delivering significant business benefits.
In a nutshell, these include personalised recommendations that simplify the shopping journey, offering customers products aligned with their preferences, providing tailored solutions to encourage revisits and data collection to enhance future product development. They even have AI-powered drones! The drones use a combination of cameras, sensors, and AI algorithms to identify products and assess inventory levels, and are integrated with IKEA’s warehouse management system.
However, if AI is alien to your business, let’s start with three simple benefits.
First up – Visual Search – Offering an on-site visual search function allows customers to upload images and instantly find similar matching products. Sofology has implemented this technology, which has boosted product discovery and engagement.
Next – Personalised Recommendations – AI powered recommendation engines analyse browsing behaviour, purchase history and product preferences. This then churns out relevant products to suit that searcher. AI can also determine if products are in stock or suggest complementary pieces, offering potential sales boost too.
Finally – Predictive Intelligence – AI can build a picture of what could be in demand before it becomes mainstream. Using predicative analytics, retailers can enhance marketing by identifying popular products, anticipate trends and even avoid stock-related issues. Furthermore, AI-powered chatbots can engage in real-time with customers, providing detailed responses, guiding shoppers more fluently and enhancing the overall shopping experience.
There are platforms out there that offer AI in different spaces. For example, Presti has continued to raise the awareness of its generative AI solutions tailored to create high-quality lifestyle imagery, as well as a video feature that enables brands to produce photorealistic product videos in just minutes. Meanwhile, Juliettes Interiors – a manufacturer and retailer – uses AI as a way of producing products. The business has adopted an AI approach to produce low-resolution renders “quickly, efficiently, and at minimal cost—ideal for early-stage client engagement”.
Even Furniture Sales Solutions took AI’s ChatGPT to task, exploring some scenarios where AI takes over as the salesperson. “There’s a lot that impressed me about ChatGPT’s responses, it seemed to have a good grasp of the basics and it avoided some of the classic errors that I was expecting. However, there were also some big opportunities that it missed out on, which would leave a lot of money on the table and potentially affect the customer’s experience.”
This filers in nicely to ChatGPT. The software can be tested and teased as Furniture Sales Solutions tried out, it can also benefit your salesfloor professionals too, perhaps by finding out if anything is missing from their usual interaction with a customer or if they are already lightyears ahead of AI when it comes to customer service – worth a look into though, right?
ChatGPT can also be used in a variety of ways. From summarising text, brainstorming ideas and analysing images, plus much more, the platform is a good place to start. For example, and for the purpose of this blog, I asked it: “What is trending in mattresses?”
The results: top trends for 2025, trending mattress choices, notable picks, why certain mattresses matched the search and how to choose your ideal mattress. There was plenty of content to chip away at, which could be great if you are looking to create a marketing campaign.
I even searched ‘why is AI good to use for furniture retailers’ – which again churned out plenty of content to consider – perhaps I should’ve searched that at the beginning of writing this article!
The possibilities seem endless with AI and this blog has only scratched the surface. As a final thought though, it’s worth considering some legal issues surrounding AI in the furnishing industry. Without going into this too heavily, the AI Bill proposal, signifying persistent concerns over the risks posed by AI, suggests the setting-up of a centralised statutory AI authority to apply cross-sector and a set of codified principles for the ethical use of AI.
If passed as is, the AI Bill would align UK AI policy with the EU AI Act, imposing enforceable obligations on AI developers and deployers. Then there’s AI developer liability. For a user of an AI system developed by a third party, an important issue would be allocating liability in the event the AI system malfunctions. It is not presently known how AI arrives at a decision (this is routinely referred to as AI’s “black box” nature). As such, it can prove challenging to understand who is liable when something goes wrong.
All-in-all, AI is an interesting tool that is growing, while offering transformative options to the industry. However your business is exploring AI, it would be great to know your journey and uses so far. Please do reach out to me at dan@bigfurnituregroup.com – it would be great to share your story.
Oh, and did you know I used AI to generate the header image of this article! Fancy right! I actually used Canva’s free AI image generator from text saying ‘furniture retail store’. Scroll up to check it out again!
If this month’s article has been of interest and you would like some further reading, below are links to some of the above-mentioned stories we’ve talked about. Happy reading and happy AI exploring.
AI vs Human: Who makes the better salesperson?
https://www.bigfurnituregroup.com/ai-vs-human-who-makes-the-better-salesperson/
How AI is helping Juliettes Interiors
https://www.bigfurnituregroup.com/how-ai-is-helping-juliettes-interiors/
Revolutionising Furniture Imagery with Generative AI
https://www.bigfurnituregroup.com/revolutionising-furniture-imagery-with-generative-ai/
The evolving landscape of AI: What to consider…
https://www.bigfurnituregroup.com/the-evolving-landscape-of-ai-what-to-consider/