The unexpected ways AI has helped Tim Gauci's interior design company

When Tim Gauci, founder of Design & Diplomacy, began his curiosity-driven experiment with ChatGPT, he was not expecting the notoriously job-disrupting tool to grow his workforce.

But three years since his AI foray began, Tim has more staff – all thanks, he says, to the technology’s performance in the backend of his business, where he uses it for “virtually everything” besides interior design.

“It helps us profile and attract new clients and has shaved thousands off our monthly outgoings,” he said, ahead of The AI Summit.

However, Tim, who previously ran a database and networks business for Telstra in Vietnam before working as a diplomat, says his AI-gains didn’t just fall on his lap.

Instead of being a passenger in his AI journey, he has been firmly at the helm, actively training the tool to work for him and his specific business environment.

What exactly is his approach?

Ahead of the AI Summit, Informa spoke with Tim to find out.

Testing ideas internally

Tim never uses AI in the studio or for client-facing work. Instead, his designers sometimes use it to test an idea or concept before deciding whether to undertake the design work.

This can provide a snapshot to test the space of a room or whether cabinetry colours, finishes and fixed features will work.

“It is simply a quick internal tool for the designers. We never show a client an AI render, and it does not replace the design work,” Tim said.

Sales support

With Tim’s designers typically charging around $300 to $500 per hour, these operational savings have been sizeable. But for Tim, the tool’s greatest financial uplift has come from using AI to drive sales.

His workforce, which consists entirely of creatives, now lean on AI to help qualify and pitch new clients – a task that once stretched their roles as designers and architects.

“Yes, we are a creative business, but before we get to that, we must sell our services to the right people - and help prospective clients discern what's different about us.

“AI can really help on these counts. It helps us work out who is potentially a good client for us. It helps us write proposals, collate information and work out average pricing on different finishes.

“Then once clients are on board, it helps us with a whole range of tasks before we sit down with them and start talking about things like space, light and acoustics.”

Driving efficiencies

Pre-AI, these tasks were done through human interactions and thought-written responses – both of which were drawn-out processes.

Now, when an enquiry comes through, AI quickly summarises it and writes a tailored response for review before it is sent.

“We can upload the enquiry, and AI already knows who is most suitable for our services because I’ve trained it to understand my specific business environment and my company’s sweet spot.

“We basically ‘brain dump’ all the relevant key points about the client and the job, and then our chatbot does the drafting. It checks its own spelling and makes sure the message is nuanced correctly. The project owner then reviews it before it is sent.

For Tim, this comes in handy, with many of his key staff non-native English speakers.

“They are excellent English speakers and writers, but when they want to be especially nuanced and precise, they can communicate with AI in their mother tongue if needed, and it punches it out in perfect English – which means I don’t have to deep-dive into every single proposal before it goes out.

“I still glance over the bigger ones, but I don’t have to dig around in the weeds, looking at grammar – I just look at how it’s pitched.”

Despite the obvious workflow appeal, Tim said digitising these tasks has drastically lifted his commercial performance.

“My P&L looks better now. We spend much less time on admin, much more on design and creative work. And the work that sits around that - securing the client, billing, writing proposals, amending them, quoting, and things like that – it’s halved the time we spend on that.

“It’s given me the bandwidth to hire new staff - and I’ve already grown my team this year.”

Slashing bills

While results so far have been measurable, Tim has continued to experiment with AI, quickly realising its potential to cut costs elsewhere in the value chain.

He now regularly uploads his personal and business bills to ChatGPT and asks it to interrogate them for accuracy, draft emails seeking corrections, or find him a better deal.

“My service providers don’t mess around with me anymore, because they likely know I’m using AI to audit my bills and survey the competition. Now when I call them, they generally give me a discount straight off the bat or provide a better deal. It’s saved me, all up, around $5,000–$10,000 per year,” he said.

Tim now also pays his bookkeeper much less than his pre-AI costs, with ChatGPT doing most of the hard yards for him.

“We’ve halved the amount of accounting work we need to outsource,” he said.

Staying ahead of the curve

Zooming out of the finer details, Tim also asks his chatbot to update him on the macroeconomic forces shaping his industry.

He uses daily reports to stay ahead of the curve and pre-empt adjustments to his business model.

“This morning, I received forecasts around the cost of building, which has a downstream effect on my business. I also get updates on the likelihood of interest rate rises - things at that level.

“And that just comes to me daily. I don't have an economist writing a report for me or a director of marketing looking at my industry and the evolution of it.”

Training is crucial

Crucial to Tim’s AI success is an upfront investment of time in training the model to understand nuance. Tim said he coaches ChatGPT on everything unique to him and his business.

Sharing more on how he approaches this, Tim will speak at the upcoming AI Summit.

This year’s event – co-located with Data Centre World – will be held 7-9 September in Melbourne.

Learn more and register your tickets here.