AI adoption rates have dwarfed those of previous technologies, and many executives across home furnishings are leveraging those tools for everything from generative design to predictive analytics. Here’s how five leaders of home décor are implementing the technology, as told to our sister pub, Furniture Today.
Brian Berk
CEO
Howard Elliott
We have adopted and continue to adopt AI in many ways. Currently we are using AI to assist us with our photography needs for our website and e-commerce partners. We are using AI to create our silhouette images, line drawings and environmental images. This has made us more efficient and effective in bringing products to market.
We are starting to use AI to help us create catalogs and beta testing order entry. We will continue to leverage AI for data processing in the coming year.
Jason Phillips
CEO
Phillips Collection
At Phillips Collection, we view AI as an accelerator for creativity and efficiency rather than a replacement for human imagination. Today, we’re using AI across product storytelling, visual content generation and data organization to support design, marketing and operational workflows.
Looking ahead to 2026, our focus is on deepening these integrations, particularly in product development analytics, digital asset management and customer experience personalization. We’re also exploring AI-assisted design visualization to help clients imagine our pieces in their spaces more intuitively.
For us, the goal is simple: use technology to amplify human creativity, not automate it.
Rebekah Osborn
Chief Operating Officer
The RW Collective
We are already actively using artificial intelligence across multiple areas of our furniture wholesale and retail businesses and will expand our usage in 2026. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in core business software—from accounting platforms to ERP systems, it is enhancing our ability to analyze a wide range of key business objectives including sales trends, profitability, customer data, while optimizing product purchasing and demand forecasting. These capabilities are enabling us to make more efficient, data-driven decisions across the organization.
In addition to enterprise systems, we utilize several AI-powered tools on a daily basis. ChatGPT supports the creation and optimization of product descriptions, marketing content and internal communications, while we use Gemini to produce high-quality lifestyle imagery. Our sales platform, Wiz Commerce, allows us to add multiple products to a lifestyle image, while also quickly presenting a variety of fabric options.
From imagery and content creation to forecasting and analytics, AI is transforming the efficiency of our organization. It is not replacing personnel; rather, it is enabling our team members to accomplish more in less time, broadening their scope of responsibilities to focus on higher-value activities. As a result, AI will continue to be a key driver of operational efficiency, scalability, and profitability in 2026 and beyond.
In 2026, we plan to formalize our AI usage with specific KPIs and performance goals, including: increase demand forecast accuracy by 20% to 25%; reduce product content creation time by 40–50%; improve gross margin by one to two percentage points; increase sales representative productivity by 25%; lower operational costs by 5–8%; and enhance customer experience metrics.
We’re excited about what 2026 looks like for The RW Collective and these goals will keep us on track as we continue to evolve in a competitive category.
Mac Cooper
President
Uttermost
We are using AI in most major parts of our business already, with more planned for next year.
Some examples of current usage would be AI powered website search engines. Unlike traditional keyword-based search tools, AI interprets user intent, learns from customer behavior and continually adapts results to show the most relevant products and content.
Quality control and claims review would be another area we’ve been using AI, as it summarizes and analyzes massive amounts of data points to help draw the best conclusions. AI also is an effective tool for product development early exploration as well as generation of room scenes.
There are a number of initiatives in process now to incorporate the power of AI. One example would be a customer service chatbot for our website, which will be a home run for our customers. Another will be AI to predict demand by item to better manage our manufacturing as well as inventory quantities by DC.
If we can go from 90% in stock to something like 95% in stock in all DCs, this would be a huge positive in supporting our customers.
Miguel Gonzalez
Director of Technology
Zuo Modern
Zuo is already using AI across key parts of its business to solve real customer challenges, including: accurate lifestyle image generation that preserves true-to-life size, shape, textures and colors by merging exact 3D product replicas into real-world scenes; internal sales/CSR tools that recommend similar items from a photo sample; an enhanced search engine that understands everyday language while also analyzing product imagery; and purchasing-history insights that help sales teams make smarter, more relevant proposals.
Work is underway to expose select, proven internal AI tools directly to Zuo customers, expanding access to the same technology its teams use every day to streamline product discovery, reduce friction in the buying process, and support faster, more confident decisions.
