Lighting designers won't be replaced by AI, they'll be empowered by it | Juan Ferrari

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?

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