AI exposure: Interior Designers
Plan, design, and furnish the internal space of rooms or buildings. Design interior environments or create physical layouts that are practical, aesthetic, and conducive to the intended purposes. May specialize in a particular field, style, or phase of interior design.
Reading this score
computed35.9% of this occupation's weighted task load is exposed, which puts Interior Designers at the 62th percentile of 923 occupations. The capability is largely there. Its average task scores 2.4 out of 4 on what a current system can produce, and the frictions that hold other jobs in place are comparatively weak here.
What holds the line here is context. Across this occupation's 16 tasks it averages 1.97 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, the work depends on knowledge the model cannot hold. Much of this job runs on things that were never written down: what this particular organisation does, what happened last week, what the person across the table actually meant. That context is the barrier, and it erodes as systems are given more access.
The most exposed thing this job does is Research and explore the use of new materials, technologies, and products to incorporate into..., at 86.7%. The least is Subcontract fabrication, installation, and arrangement of carpeting, fixtures, accessories,..., at 6.7%. A gap of 80.0% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within arts, design, entertainment, sports and media occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 38.5% across the group's 40 roles, with 22 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 16 tasks, 12 are currently banded exposed, 1 assisted and 3 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take cheaper ways to verify output, since the cost of checking is currently doing more to hold this work in place than the cost of producing it. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Task by task
16 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research and explore the use of new materials, technologies, and products to incorporate into designs. | 86.7% | 13.3% | 0.0% | 3.75 | exposed |
| Research health and safety code requirements to inform design. | 60.0% | 15.0% | 25.0% | 4.68 | exposed |
| Plan and design interior environments for boats, planes, buses, trains, and other enclosed spaces. | 50.0% | 25.0% | 25.0% | 2.47 | exposed |
| Confer with client to determine factors affecting planning of interior environments, such as budget, architectural preferences, purpose, and function. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 4.56 | exposed |
| Advise client on interior design factors, such as space planning, layout and use of furnishings or equipment, and color coordination. | 42.5% | 32.5% | 25.0% | 4.52 | exposed |
| Design plans to be safe and to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act (ADA). | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.76 | exposed |
| Design spaces to be environmentally friendly, using sustainable, recycled materials when feasible. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.71 | exposed |
| Estimate material requirements and costs, and present design to client for approval. | 37.5% | 25.0% | 37.5% | 3.88 | exposed |
| Use computer-aided drafting (CAD) and related software to produce construction documents. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.74 | exposed |
| Render design ideas in form of paste-ups or drawings. | 33.3% | 16.7% | 50.0% | 4.32 | exposed |
| Select or design, and purchase furnishings, art work, and accessories. | 31.7% | 18.3% | 50.0% | 3.96 | exposed |
| Review and detail shop drawings for construction plans. | 30.0% | 20.0% | 50.0% | 4.44 | exposed |
| Formulate environmental plan to be practical, esthetic, and conducive to intended purposes, such as raising productivity or selling merchandise. | 29.2% | 33.3% | 37.5% | 3.68 | assisted |
| Inspect construction work on site to ensure its adherence to the design plans. | 8.3% | 16.7% | 75.0% | 4.42 | untouched |
| Coordinate with other professionals, such as contractors, architects, engineers, and plumbers, to ensure job success. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.46 | untouched |
| Subcontract fabrication, installation, and arrangement of carpeting, fixtures, accessories, draperies, paint and wall coverings, art work, furniture, and related items. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.05 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 2.38 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.06 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 0.75 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 1.22 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.97 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 1.50 | 0-3 |
What this means in practice
Where most of a role's weighted task load is exposed, the work that survives is usually the part of the job nobody wrote into the job description: deciding what should be produced rather than producing it, and being answerable for the result. The tasks lowest on this page are a better guide to where to spend your time than any general advice about the future of work.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.