Designing the Future: Kseniia Serebrennikova on How Technology and AI Are Transforming the Design Industry

Kseniia Serebrennikova is the winner of the ArchIdea-2025 Award (1st place in 3D Visualization and the Audience Choice Prize), finalist of the “Russian Lighting Design Award”- 2025, a nominee in Elle Decoration’s 200 Best in Russia, and a participant of the 2024 exhibition Russian House. She is the author of acclaimed projects such as Bar Barin, A Stalin-Era Apartment with French Motifs, and Beauty Co-Working. She is also the creator of the digital product Design Simply, a mentor to young designers, and a frequent contributor to Esquire, OK! Magazine, The Voice Mag, 7 Days, and My Decor. Her international experience spans an internship in Milan and projects across Russia and Europe.

This interview offers the perspective of a designer whose projects and name are widely recognized in the industry on how technology and artificial intelligence are reshaping the profession.

10 Questions for Kseniia Serebrennikova

You recently won two awards at ArchIdea-2025 for your project A Stalin-Era Apartment with French Motifs. What role did technology, 3D visualization, AI, and digital tools play in that victory?

My project received two awards at ARCHIDEA 2025, including first place in 3D Visualization. It was both international recognition of my skills and validation of my unique approach to interior design.

I work extensively with 3ds Max to achieve maximum precision and photorealism. This enables dozens of professionals on-site to literally work “from the picture,” dramatically shortening timelines and minimizing mistakes.

More recently, I’ve been integrating AI tools that transform static images into dynamic walkthroughs in minutes, adding personal touches like a client’s pet approving the design, and incorporating revisions without weeks of back-and-forth with consultants. This leads clients to more informed decisions  faster and allows me to focus on the conceptual heart of the project. These practices go beyond individual projects: they establish a new standard of quality and efficiency. My work demonstrates how digital technologies and AI not only elevate creative vision but also advance the entire interior design industry globally.

project A Stalin-Era Apartment with French Motifs

You were one of the first designers in Siberia to launch a digital product (Design Simply) and offer an online format for a wider audience. How do AI and new technologies help you develop such projects and make design more accessible?

Design Simply is my signature course, where I share professional techniques based on tools I use in my own practice. At its core lies a classical foundation: working with drafting software and creating collages as essential instruments for mood, composition, and color solutions.

What makes my approach unique is its accessibility combined with forward-thinking. I am now developing a new module dedicated to AI applications. It accelerates idea generation, moodboard creation, and visual selection, while preserving the designer’s individual style.

To me, leadership in design today lies in anticipating how technology will transform the profession. By incorporating AI into products like this, I am shaping a new standard for uniting tradition and innovation in interior practice.

Your projects devote great attention to lighting whether in Five Minutes and Out or residential interiors. How do modern algorithms and AI platforms help you design light to highlight both the space and the people within it?

Light in my projects is never secondary, it is the key element shaping atmosphere and well-being. In Five Minutes and Out, as in private homes, I design lighting not only to serve the interior but also to enhance the emotional state of its inhabitants.

Modern programs already model natural and artificial light with high accuracy, calculating how shadows and reflections affect materials and color. Today I integrate AI platforms that can instantly simulate scenarios: from shifting daylight across the day to adaptive lighting that accentuates textures, forms, and even a person’s appearance.

This approach shows how design has moved beyond décor into a knowledge-intensive practice. By merging creativity with algorithms, I set new lighting standards that combine beauty with human-centered functionality something juries and peers consistently recognize.

project the “5 Minutes and Out” beauty store

VR and AR presentations are popular now. Do you use them, and how do they influence client decisions?

I don’t focus on VR or AR as much as I do on another innovation: I create detailed 3D renderings and then, with AI, transform them into dynamic videos. This brings interiors to life without requiring special equipment.

These video presentations have a powerful impact on decision-making. In motion, clients can see how light, color, and space interact. They grasp the concept faster, reducing revisions and preventing miscommunication between clients and contractors.

For me, innovation is not about chasing trends but choosing technologies that truly benefit the project. AI-powered video has become my signature tool already praised by clients and the professional community as a new level of designer–client communication.

project A Stalin-Era Apartment with French Motifs

Sustainable design is a growing focus. Do you use AI tools to select eco-friendly materials and forecast durability?

Absolutely. I treat sustainability as a key strategy in modern interiors, not just a trend. AI helps me evaluate materials holistically: their origin, environmental footprint, energy efficiency, and projected durability. This allows me to propose long-term, responsible solutions that go far beyond aesthetics.

Every day, new materials and technologies appear around the world it’s simply impossible for one person to keep up. That’s where AI becomes a perfect assistant. It constantly gathers data on the latest innovations, compares their advantages and drawbacks, and even analyzes user feedback from multiple languages. It gives me honest, real-world insights into how materials actually perform once they leave the lab and enter people’s homes.

There are also emerging tools that model how materials will behave five or ten years from now. They combine machine learning with sensor data to forecast how wood tones shift under light, how finishes respond to humidity, or how fabrics hold up with use. By processing thousands of case studies and performance records, they can predict long-term behavior and that’s exactly the kind of future I’m looking forward to, where sustainability becomes a measurable design parameter rather than an abstract ideal.

Your projects are known for strong concepts, such as A Stalin-Era Apartment with French Motifs or Five Minutes and Out. How do you balance creative vision with digital algorithms that offer ready-made solutions?

For me, every project begins with a story. An interior isn’t a collection of functional decisions, it’s a narrative that reflects culture, memory, and emotion. Algorithms can offer ready-made solutions, but they can’t define meaning.

Moreover, technology gives us incredible freedom. Centuries ago, gothic cathedrals took generations to build; today, digital fabrication allows us to create complex, ornate environments within our lifetime. The question isn’t whether technology limits creativity, it’s how we use it to expand imagination.

project A Stalin-Era Apartment with French Motifs

You’ve already been featured in outlets like Esquire, My Decor and OK! Magazine. Looking ahead, how do you think AI will transform the profession of interior design in the next 10 years?

It will transform the field and yet, in some ways, it won’t. AI already helps with visualization, brainstorming, and iterations; it’s like an extra creative hand. Technology keeps evolving, embedding itself into our lives, but the first iteration of a project often still begins as a collage or a sketch. The real synthesis happens in our heads, shaped by experience, intuition, and the connection with the client — the medium doesn’t matter.I have heard that to create a project with AI you’ll need to write 200 prompts. But we are visual thinkers, not writers! Maybe there will be designers who “write” designs? It will be an interesting approach. But design begins in the mind in that synthesis of experience, emotion, and vision that only a human can have.

In the next decade, designers will act more as strategists and curators. AI will generate millions of layout or lighting options, but it will be our role to filter, adapt, and transform them into concepts that reflect human stories and cultural identity. Answers are cheap. Taste isn’t. The real skill lies in curating what’s good, knowing what works, and leading with vision. This is why I constantly study design history, architecture, photography, art and the entire vocabulary of human creativity. When you immerse yourself in that lineage, you begin to see patterns that repeat across decades, which makes designs timeless. You develop an informed eye, capable of seeing what most people — and most algorithms can’t.

But my biggest curiosity is how AI will reshape life itself the lives of people we design for. What happens when a client’s home includes a robotic assistant or pet? Will I need to rethink ergonomics, materials, or even sound isolation for built-in server rooms? The next evolution of design will not only respond to people but to new kinds of “inhabitants.”

Ultimately, AI will make design more efficient, but the human element imagination, context, empathy will always define meaning.

The project of a large house

You often speak of a human-centered approach. How can AI help create interiors for people with special needs children, the elderly, or those with disabilities?

This is one of the most meaningful directions for AI. First, it helps navigate complex ADA requirements, a huge advantage since accessibility codes are constantly evolving. But beyond that, AI can analyze how real people with different abilities interact with spaces.

Historically, ergonomic standards were based on averages and often, on the male body. Many objects and spaces were simply not designed with women or people with disabilities in mind. AI can change that. By gathering global data and user feedback, it can help us tailor truly personalized solutions environments that fit each individual, not the statistical norm.

In the near future, I expect algorithms will simulate movement, analyze risk, and propose accessibility improvements long before construction. That doesn’t replace design, it deepens it. It allows us to create interiors that are not only beautiful, but safer, more intuitive, and more inclusive.

Looking further into the future, do you imagine a time when clients themselves will use AI to design their spaces? What will remain the irreplaceable role of the professional designer?

Yes — and I welcome it. People with smaller budgets will gain access to intelligent tools that help them plan and visualize their homes. Design will become more democratic, and that’s a wonderful thing. But this isn’t entirely new; the industrial revolution already brought mass-produced homes, IKEA, and showrooms that make good design accessible. AI is just the next step.

Even as AI becomes a “designer in your pocket,” humans still crave real human-to-human connection not B2B, not B2C, but H2H (I borrowed that from Chris Do). You’ve probably heard the joke that an interior designer doubles as a psychologist? – we listen, interpret, and guide people through emotional and aesthetic decisions. AI can suggest, but it cannot feel. It cannot sense the subtle tension between nostalgia and aspiration that shapes someone’s home.

What creative professionals must recognize is that our value doesn’t lie in output — it lies in insight. This is the ability to generate big ideas, to take risks, to make conceptual leaps no machine can predict. And here’s why AI can’t do it. AI is trained on what’s already been done. AI is great at pattern recognition, but breakthrough ideas break patterns. It can remix, but it doesn’t originate. It won’t surprise you with something that feels risky or weird or human. The courage to be wrong is what creates originality.That’s what makes them human.

As someone once said, and it resonated with me: “Designers are futurists.” We rehearse possible futures and choose the most meaningful path forward. AI may illuminate the options — but it’s our job to decide which future is worth building.

Duplex Apartments “K48”