What if a building could act like a good host—aware of time, mood, and context—because its walls, ceilings, and fixtures are all speaking fluent light? That’s the world explored with immersive design veteran Brad Koerner, who connects dots from Disney show control and Harvard studios to Color Kinetics, microLED production, and today’s AI-powered workflows. The thesis is bold and practical: every light is a pixel, every pixel is a light, and the space you occupy is the best interface to the digital world.

We pull apart the myth that AI “replaces” creativity. Instead, Brad shows how tools like Midjourney, large language models, and rapid prototyping let designers stock the idea funnel in hours, not weeks, then do the real work—curation, de-risking, and shipping. We contrast spreadsheet lighting with theatre’s living vocabulary of time and motion, and we follow that thread into retail and healthcare: generative media that slashes content costs, luxury fitting rooms that earn the sale, and patient rooms that heal through spectrum, narrative, and calm. Along the way, we touch DC power, data-driven optimisation, and microLED walls that are nearly indistinguishable from reality, complete with extended channels for accurate skin tones and circadian-aware scenes.

If your toolbox stops at dimmers and presets, this conversation expands your map. We talk privacy as a spectrum—from anonymous reactions to check-in personalisation—and why designers should own that placement with clarity and care. We also tackle education and leadership, arguing for judgment over tool worship and for cross-silo fluency that merges lighting, AV, content, and IT into one coherent experience. The bottom line: technology is no longer the bottleneck; imagination, coordination, and courage are.

Enjoy the episode, share it with a colleague who still thinks AV is “not our spec,” and leave a review with the one space you’d transform first. Your feedback helps more curious listeners find the show.

The fear that AI will replace skilled professionals is misplaced – at least in lighting design. "I don't want AI to do lighting design for me," explains Juan Ferrari, Lighting Design Director at Hoare Lea, UK, "I want AI to actually make my lighting design better."

This enlightening conversation explores how creative professionals are harnessing artificial intelligence as a powerful assistant rather than viewing it as a threat. Juan, whose fascinating journey from actor to architectural lighting designer gives him unique perspective on narrative and emotion in spaces, shares practical ways his 25-person team uses AI daily to enhance their work.

From streamlining mundane tasks like email writing to creating custom GPTs for technical processes, Juan demonstrates how embracing these tools allows designers to focus on what truly matters – the creative play with light that no algorithm can replicate. He walks us through challenges like maintaining data integrity when training models, ethical considerations around copyright, and the necessity of transparency with clients about AI usage.

Perhaps most compelling is Juan's vision for the future: AI handling computational tasks to free designers from computer screens so they can physically experiment with light. "We are lighting designers. We spend quite a bit of time behind a computer doing things to enable the play, and the play seems to be a really small portion of our job," he notes. "I wish that AI enables us to do much more of that."

Whether you're a lighting professional curious about incorporating AI into your workflow or simply interested in how creative fields are adapting to technological change, this conversation offers valuable insights into maintaining human expertise while embracing powerful new tools. How might AI enhance your creative process rather than replace it?