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Saw an AI demo at a trade show in Chicago that flipped my view on job automation
I was at the Midwest Landscaping Expo in Chicago last month, mostly looking at new mowers, when I wandered into a tech pavilion. A company had a demo of an AI system that could design a full garden layout from a photo of a yard and a client's wish list. I mean, it spat out a 3D model with plant choices, irrigation lines, the whole thing, in maybe 5 minutes. It felt like magic, but also kind of scary. Part of me thinks this is the future, saving hours of drawing time and letting us take on more clients. The other part worries it makes the creative, hands-on part of the job feel cheap, like we're just button-pushers for a computer. Has anyone else seen AI tools that are actually useful for skilled trades, or do they mostly just miss the mark?
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lee_gibson6d ago
Man, that is SO spot on! I saw something just like it for kitchen remodels at a home show. This program took a blurry phone pic of an old kitchen and, I swear, gave you three new floor plans with cabinet styles and lighting layouts in seconds. It was wild. Part of me was pumped because it would save SO much time on the first draft with a client. But yeah, it also felt weird, like the computer was doing the fun part of solving the puzzle. Makes you wonder what we're really getting paid for.
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abby1896d ago
My cousin's architecture firm in Austin uses that exact software. They told me it cut their initial client meeting time in half because they skip the blank page panic. Lee_gibson, you're right that the computer does a first draft, but that's just the start. The real job is picking the right plan for how the family actually lives, not just what looks cool. The puzzle is way bigger than cabinets, it's about fixing the flow of a whole house. That's what we get paid for, the human choices a machine can't make.
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