Left: A sample product photo from HiEnd Accents with harsh track lighting. RIGHT: An AI-generated mockup brings more life and romance to the bedding set, showing it in a styled setting.
DALLAS – HiEnd Accents, a maker of top-of-the-bed products says AI has transformed how it’s business conducts research, develops products and identifies markets gaps.
Speaking with Furniture Today, President Jonathan He said what once use to take weeks for the company to create can now be done in seconds thanks to the various AI tools and software’s. He pointed out that large language models also help them pinpoint what’s trending, what isn’t and where the company should innovate next.
“Yes, we use AI quite a bit. We primarily use it for ideation, especially on the marketing and design side and understanding best practices across the industry so we can continuously improve,” He said. “AI will look at our portfolio and say ‘you have all these looks, but you’re missing this one thing which we think will be really trendy this season.’ We then take that and share it with our designers and see what they say. It’s an awesome tool to get a jumpstart on creative and product development process.”
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However, despite using a wide range of software tools, He said one area where the company does not rely on AI is for product imagery. The team continues to depend on traditional photography for final marketing photos because AI-generated images are not precise enough for advertising.
“For our industry if we are advertising a pattern, the print of the pattern has to be 100% accurate, and we have not been able to use AI. Also, it can come out looking a little bit fake,” said He.
The company says the real strength lies in what AI can do for mockups.
“We can show clients the general idea and tell them ‘this was created by AI … and this is how it will look.’ It is super powerful because it creates a beautiful mockup in seconds, while in the past it gave really ugly mockups. And if h you ave an ugly mockup, you don’t sell the romance of the bed,” He added.
He warns that companies not using AI are already at a disadvantage. “The unfortunate reality is that you have no choice; the entire world is moving on,” said the president.
He likened this shift to the industrial revolution, when refusing new tools meant being left behind. He pointed out that specialty companies who opt out of AI may survive as niche players but won’t be able to scale up.
“People say it’s more important than the Internet, so, I find it difficult to believe that if you are not using AI that you will be able to be successful and to grow when everyone else is using it.”
The company says it considers AI both a sword and a shield. “A sword because it lets smaller companies compete with big ones. As a shield because if we are not using it, other companies will come to the realization and come bashing us hard on our heads with their swords. So you kind of have to be using it,” said He.
AI can be self-taught
The HiEnd Accents exec said one of the biggest misconceptions about AI is that it is difficult to learn. Most of the skills the HiEnd Accents team developed came from freely available online videos, tutorials and walkthroughs. They utilized platforms such as YouTube, which have become a primary training ground and is a tremendous resource.
“You can search Nana Banana Pro image model, how to use it for interior designers and architectures, it will come up with all sorts of videos. I think the learning for AI is and can be mostly self-taught, you just need to go out there and watch some videos,” said He.
“One of the fun things about AI is that you can ask AI how to learn AI. You can ask for a structured plan, and it will” give it to you.
HiEnd Accents says there are countless AI tools in the market today, and companies need to choose the ones that can streamline their workflow. “I have found that the main tools like the big boys are the most useful ones, like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini with Nana Banana Pro for image generation,” said He. “ChatGPT and Claude can do really good trend research, and then you have all these other specialty tools you can pick up based on what your company needs such as Midjourney.”
The HiEnd Accents exec also suggests that companies can use legacy software programs such as Sap, Canva, Norton and PowerPoint, which include AI features that can significantly streamline and speed up the workflow.
