Why AI Isn't Recommending YOUR Interior Design Business
Your ideal client is already asking AI for designer recommendations. Here's why your name isn't coming up.
AI doesn't recommend categories. It recommends specific answers to specific questions. When a homeowner types a hiring query into ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini or Perplexity, the designers who appear aren't necessarily the most talented in the city, they're the ones AI can confidently define as the most likely answer to that question.
Most advice about AEO focuses on content structure and tactics. Which is important, but…that's the fourth layer of a four-layer problem. Without addressing specification, intent, and context first, even a perfectly structured website won't move your name to the top of an AI recommendation.
AEO isn’t SEO. It’s a different beast. If you’re buying your AEO support from a former SEO guru, ensure that they understand the difference and have a plan for the first 3 layers of their AEO strategy for your business.
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[00:00.8]
AI has just destroyed interior designers. Or at least that's what some social media AI influencers been saying lately. Pardon my French. That is total bullshit.
[00:37.0]
AI done right isn't going to destroy interior designers. In fact, it's perfectly placed to help you transform your referral heavy design business into a business that doesn't just reflect rely on repeats and referrals, but only if AI learns exactly who you are, who your ideal client is, exactly what they want, and perhaps more importantly, exactly what they're afraid of.
[01:05.1]
So how do we get AI to do this for us right now? Whether you know it or not, AI is already influencing your business in two very specific ways that I'm not hearing mentioned The first one, a homeowner spends three weeks researching interior designers before she makes a single phone call.
[01:25.1]
She's not just asking friends and family anymore, she's asking ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini. And the designer she calls first isn't necessarily the best one in her city or even the one her neighbor or sister in law recommended.
[01:41.5]
It might just be the one her AI recommended to her. The second way AI is impacting interior designers today is more personal and annoying. Imagine this. You're sitting down with a client, someone who's already hired you, and you've made some recommendations, you've had some meetings, a little bit of back and forth.
[02:01.9]
There's been some material selections. Perhaps you've designed a layout and they're happy with that. The contractor has been set. Instead of calling their spouse or a friend when they have a question, they whip out their phone, ask ChatGPT, and then come back to you with a pushback based on what the AI told them.
[02:24.9]
I don't know if you've heard this yet, but I've spoken to a number of designers who have and it's a real pain in the butt. The fact is AI is already in the room. It's influencing who gets hired and it's influencing what happens after you're hired. The designers who understand or who learn how AI is making those decisions right now and who set themselves up correctly are going to have a significant advantage over everyone else two years from now.
[02:53.2]
Say there's no need to freak out we're still in the super early days of AI and how it's going to impact interior design. The field isn't crowded yet, and to be quite honest, there's actually a huge opportunity for interior designers. So, let's talk about finding clients.
[03:10.1]
Specifically how AI decides which designer to recommend when a homeowner asks it. And to understand that, we've got to get a little nerdy for a minute and talk about something called A, E, O. Think of it as the AI version of SEO, but kind of different.
[03:26.9]
Stick with me. Most of you have already heard of SEO. Search Engine optimization. Getting Google to notice you. Right now, if you've been googling how to get AI to recommend your business, you're going to find a bunch of SEO experts talking about something called geo, which stands for Generative Engine Optimization.
[03:48.4]
And that makes sense because GEO is basically the AI version of SEO. Same idea, different platform. But the things that those SEO experts are missing is that GEO is only a small part of getting AI to recommend your business to your ideal clients.
[04:07.5]
AEO answer Engine Optimization is made up of four pieces and GEO is just one of them. Let's walk through all four layer. One is specification. Let me ask you something first.
[04:23.4]
If a homeowner asked AI to describe your business right now, what would it say? Would it say experienced and talented interior designer? Or would it say something like Midtown Toronto interior designer for families who've just bought a home that needs a complete overhaul or are, finally doing the renovation they've been putting off for a decade and need someone who will run the entire project so they can keep working and not have their lives blown up by construction.
[04:52.7]
That's the difference between a category and what we're looking for. Specification. unlike Google, unlike SEO, AI doesn't recommend categories. It recommends specific answers to specific questions.
[05:09.8]
To win at aeo, you need to be able to state your specification in one clear sentence. It needs to be clear on your website, on your Instagram bio, on your Facebook, etc. And if it's not clear online, AI is working with a blurry picture. And a blurry picture doesn't get sited by AI.
[05:28.6]
It gets skipped in favor of some other interior designer whose picture is sharp. Layer two is intent. Before you can predict how your ideal client will search AI for an interior designer, you need to really understand your ideal client so that you can put yourself in their shoes.
[05:47.7]
A homeowner doesn't wake up one morning and type, find me the best interior designer in Buffalo into AI. She's been Dreaming about her home for months, scrolling Instagram, saving Pinterest boards. But when it comes time to actually search for an interior designer to make their dream home come true, all of those warm and fuzzy feelings have to compete with her fears.
[06:12.1]
The fear of spending too much. The fear of choosing the wrong person. Experience, process, personality, yada yada yada. She begins her search broad and narrows in. And the problem with niching down is that homeowner A may have completely different fears and goals than homeowner B.
[06:31.2]
Are they focused on price or quality or artistry or speed? Do you actually know what your ideal client is afraid of when she starts looking for a designer? Because that fear is what shapes her search. This is where my ideal client avatar tool can help.
[06:47.5]
I'll link it below. This isn't a commercial for that. It's worth doing before you touch a single piece of AEO work. If you can't identify your ideal client in an incredibly detailed level, it's going to be a problem when it comes to aeo.
[07:04.2]
Layer three is context. I got another question for you. If an AI model assembled everything that exists about you online right now, what picture do you think it would put together? Take a second and really think about that.
[07:19.7]
Your website, Your Instagram, Your Google Business listing, Any press mentions, podcast appearances? Client testimonials? AI is pulling all of that stuff together right now to decide whether it can confidently recommend you.
[07:35.7]
And here's the uncomfortable part. Most designers have been creating that content for years without a clue if it's telling AI the right story. Which makes sense because AI, wasn't around to be told the right story. The fact is, do you have enough content online?
[07:54.4]
Is all of that content consistent, telling AI the same story about who you are as an interior designer? Does that content paint a picture of you as the perfect interior designer for that ideal client that you've identified? If it does, you're on your way.
[08:10.1]
AI is going to love you. If it doesn't, you've got some work to do. Layer four is content Layer four brings us back to GEO and to all of those SEO experts who've rebranded themselves as AEO experts.
[08:30.6]
Layer four is all about tactics. Content structure, FAQ placement, extractable answers, clean headings, brand mentions, backlinks. All of it's real and all of it matters. But here's the thing I want you to remember.
[08:46.7]
Layer 4 only works if layers 1, 2, and 3 are done first and done Properly. Because a perfectly structured blog post about nothing specific from a designer with unclear positioning and a thin online presence. AI is not going to show that designer any love.
[09:04.1]
Doesn't matter how good or how expensive your SEO expert is. Sorry, your geo expert. So let me show you what this actually looks like with a real interior designer. Someone I know well enough to be completely honest about. My wife Nicole has been a residential interior designer in Toronto for years.
[09:26.1]
She's run her own business, Robin Co. For 15 years now. No marketing, no advertising, word of mouth, only whole home renovations. Really strong project management skills. Ignoring my obvious bias, Nicole is exactly the kind of designer a homeowner in Toronto doing high end renovation would want to hire.
[09:46.6]
So let's see what AI thinks of her. Actually, a quick note before we dive into this. When I ran this search, logged into Perplexity with my Google identity. Nicole was the only designer it recommended.
[10:04.1]
When I went incognito, things were very different. And I want you to think about that for a second. When you're logged in, when Perplexity or Claude or chatgpt knows who you are, it's going to kiss your butt.
[10:20.0]
It's going to glaze you. So that's why it returned Nicole as the perfect choice for this interior designer in Toronto. So if you want to test your own standing with AI, make sure that you are in incognito mode.
[10:37.2]
If you're logged in, you're not going to get a true answer. Okay, so let's let's go into this. So what I've done is I'm going to pull up a screenshot of the search I did with Perplexity. I'm looking for an experienced interior designer in Toronto who specializes in high end whole home renovations and manages the entire project from start to finish.
[11:03.5]
Can you recommend someone and tell me why? Let's see what happens. Okay, so four designers have appeared. Sansa Interiors, Kate Company, Studio Forma, Sosna. No mention of Robinco. Not because they're better than Nicole, because as we know, that's not possible.
[11:24.1]
Probably because the language on their websites directly matched what I typed. Nicole's online presence doesn't yet do that work in the same way. Now here's where it gets interesting for me. I'm going to switch queries and I'm going to ask Perplexity to compare Nicole Robb of Rob and company to those other Toronto based residential interior designers.
[11:48.1]
I'm giving Perplexity her name and let's see what it knows and how it compares. So what we've got is a detailed comparison table. Rob Co. Described as boutique, highly personal, renovation heavy. The best fit summary.
[12:04.8]
Rob and company seems best for homeowners who want a trusted lead designer to manage a renovation end to end, especially if they care about livability, deadlines and budget discipline. This is almost exactly how I describe Nicole's practice myself. AI knows who she is.
[12:22.7]
It just didn't think of her. More importantly, it didn't pull her up in a search when a homeowner was looking for exactly what Nicholas Nicole already does. It's kind of obvious that Nicole has a specification and intent problems in regards to her AEO.
[12:39.9]
A.I. isn't seeing Nicole as the answer to that looking for an interior designer in Toronto question. It's just not. Let's keep going. I'm going to ask Perplexity to compare the cost of hiring Nicole versus another Toronto firm. Again, I'm using Nicole's name.
[12:55.1]
Watch how it describes her. Premium, full service, higher touch, principal designer, LED luxury, end to end renovation experience. All accurate. All exactly the right signals for Nicole's ideal client. But only because Perplexity had her name in its brain.
[13:12.9]
Because I mentioned it. A homeowner who doesn't already know Nicole's name is never going to see this in an AI search. They type that hiring question and they're going to probably get somebody else. That's the gap this video is trying to identify and it's a completely fixable gap and it's something obviously I'm going to have to work on for Nicole's website and all of her socials.
[13:35.4]
If you're watching this and wondering what AI would say about you, I suggest you stop this video. Open an incognito right now in your browser. Pull up, Perplexity, type the query that you think your ideal client would use to find an interior designer in the city you live and work in.
[13:54.1]
See what happens. See if you're there. And if you are there, look at how you're described. Is that description sharp enough to make a homeowner choose you over the other names that the AI returned. That's your AEO AI gap right there on the screen.
[14:12.8]
So what do we do about this? What am I going to do for Nicole and her business? Robin company. Because knowing that all four of these layers specification, intent, context and tactics are crucial to get recommended by AI means nothing if you don't actually do something about it.
[14:33.4]
I see three paths forward for all you designers. Path one do it yourself. Sit down with your team, with friends, former clients, and figure out what is the single most precise, accurate description of what you do and who you do it for. That's your specification.
[14:49.7]
Your Layer one. Once you really, really, really know who you are, who your ideal clients are, and what you actually do and provide for them, try to figure out what questions or queries to AI they would ask. Because it's not going to match up exactly to your layer one answer.
[15:08.5]
The homeowner that actually needs you might not know that they need you. They don't know what they don't know. This takes care of layer two intent. Layer three is context, and it's taking everything you learn from layers 1 and 2 to craft a content plan for moving forward.
[15:27.3]
Are you going to start a podcast or a blog or a vlog? Are you going to focus on social media? Do you have an email newsletter with former clients? Once you got that plan, you need to craft a template for those content platforms to ensure you stay focused on the insights from layers one and two.
[15:46.3]
Layer four is the stuff that SEO experts thrived at. Pre AI, content structure, FAQ placement, extractable answers, clear headings, brand mentions, backlinks, all that nerdy stuff. If this gets you excited, the DIY path awaits for me.
[16:05.4]
No way. Can't do that. Two. Hire an expert. Find an AEO expert who understands all four layers of the blueprint that I just laid out. And be wary of SEO experts who believe that search engine optimization and answer engine optimization are the same thing, or who are just offering SEO solutions described as AEO solutions.
[16:30.2]
To be quite honest, almost none of them are using the term aeo. They're all using geo. If you've made it this far in the video, you should know the difference of all this stuff. If not, rewind. Let's do it again. I've spoken with a number of SEO pros on this topic and I can honestly say that there are experts out there who have put in the time, learning the differences, and are making a Real determined approach to become AEO experts.
[16:56.7]
In the next month or two, I hope to get one or two of them onto the podcast so we can dive deep into this topic. Path number three, if you can hold off for a few more weeks, I may have a solution for you that's going to make your life easy.
[17:12.1]
As a giant AI nerd, someone who loves AI and someone who is, like, super excited about the potential of what this can do for us, and someone who hates the stupid DIY path, I've started building an AI tool specifically to guide me and Nicole through this whole process.
[17:30.3]
There's actually going to be two tools. The first is her AEO setup tool, similar to my existing AI, Sherpa tool, which I will link, but once again, it's not a commercial for this, but trained to focus on aeo. The AI will ask you the questions you need to answer to get the specification, intent and context layers right.
[17:54.0]
Okay, The output is going to be a positioning document, a precise definition of what you are, who you serve, what question you want to be the answer to, and what your complete online presence should be communicating. With that positioning document.
[18:10.2]
You can reach out to, AEO experts and have them take over the SEO geo portion of the, of the solution. Let them do it. Or you can use, the second tool, which is an AEO maintenance tool.
[18:27.9]
You keep using that over and over and over. Once things are really set up, you probably could check in every couple of months and use this tool again. And what this tool is going to do, it's going to answer three questions. What is AI, currently saying about your business?
[18:44.4]
Does that match the intended positioning from the positioning document? And what has changed in AEO best practices since your last audit? Because AEO is going to require periodic attention, just like SEO did.
[19:00.6]
This tool makes that attention structured and fast. As I said, both tools are currently in development. I haven't even started testing them on Rob and company yet. I'm thinking about opening it up to a small number of interior design guinea, pigs who want to test out the tools themselves.
[19:21.9]
If that's something you're interested in. I will leave contact information in the captions, and show notes and all that kind of stuff and reach out to me and we will chat about it. But one last thing before I let you go. You might be wondering, what if all of this changes, right?
[19:38.9]
All the stuff people are talking about, AI, what it's going to do? The honest answer is, yeah, some of it is going to change. Content structure preferences will shift over time. AI platform behaviors will evolve. The tactical layer of all of this stuff will move.
[19:56.6]
That's just the nature of AI search today. But here's what doesn't change. AI is always going to need to clearly understand you before it can Recommend you Layers 1, 2, and 3. That's true. Regardless of whatever model is doing the searching, regardless of how platforms evolve, regardless of what AI search looks like 2, 5, 10 years from now, the specification work, the intent work, and the context you build, that foundation doesn't expire.
[20:27.1]
Designers who get this right today will be positioned well for whatever comes next. Designers who don't, won't. For the tactical layer, I see two moves. First, test yourself every few months. Open that incognito window.
[20:43.7]
run your key queries across Claude Perplexity and chatgpt and watch what changes. Second, follow practitioners who are running actual live experiments with real clients and are open and publishing what they find. That's the highest quality signal available.
[21:01.1]
It's a heck of a lot more reliable than following Most of the AI hype BS content I see on social media and on YouTube today. Coming back to the practitioners I spoke of earlier, I'm definitely going to get one or two of them onto the podcast.
[21:16.4]
I'm looking for an SEO specialist who works specifically in the design space. If there's anybody out there who, who is interested in talking with me, please reach out. I want to go deep on that tactical execution layer that this video doesn't really cover.
[21:31.7]
An SEO expert is just going to be better at that than I could ever be. When I am done with that interview, I will put it out as a podcast episode and I will link that video to this video so you'll be able to jump to it. Okay, that's it for this, podcast episode on aeo.
[21:50.3]
I know it was super nerdy. If you have any questions, seriously, reach out. Whether it's a DM on Instagram or an email, whatever, I'm happy to help. I, know it's confusing. I know. Okay, thanks for listening.
Key Takeaways
AI doesn't recommend categories. "Full-service residential interior designer" tells AI what bucket you're in — it doesn't tell AI what makes you the right answer for a specific homeowner query. Specification is a single precise sentence, not a list of services.
Most designers working on AEO are starting at Layer 4 — content tactics. Without addressing Specification (Layer 1), Intent (Layer 2), and Context (Layer 3) first, those tactics produce nothing.
Your ideal client's query won't match your specification. She doesn't know what she doesn't know. Intent work means getting inside her fears, not just her goals — because fear is what shapes her search.
If you've tested your AI visibility while logged in, you have no idea where you actually stand. AI glazes you when it knows who you are. Always test incognito.
AI can describe a designer accurately when given a name — and still not surface her organically. Knowing who you are and recommending you without a prompt are two completely different things.
Conclusions
What Changes When AI Can Define You Precisely
Right now, AI is assembling a picture of you from everything that exists about you online. Your website, your Instagram bio, your Google Business listing, any press or podcast appearances, client testimonials. Each one is a data point. The question isn't whether AI is building that picture — it is. The question is whether the picture is sharp enough to recommend you for the right query, from the right homeowner, at the moment she's ready to hire.
What to Do About It
Start with the incognito test. Open a private browser window, go to Perplexity or ChatGPT, and type the hiring query your ideal client would use to find a designer in your city. See who appears. See if you're there. If you are, read how you're described — is that description specific enough to make a homeowner choose you over the names beside yours? That gap between how AI describes you and how your best clients would describe you is your AEO starting point.
The Bigger Picture
Designers who get their specification, intent, and context right today are building a foundation that doesn't expire. The tactical layer of AI search will shift. Platform behaviours will evolve. What won't change is that AI needs to clearly understand you before it can confidently recommend you. That's true now. It'll be true in two years. The work you do on Layers 1, 2, and 3 today is the most durable marketing investment you can make for your design business right now.
Your Future with AEO
We’re building an AI powered tool to help interior designers succeed at AEO. Click the button below to get on the waiting list. It won’t be long…we’re building it for our own interior design business too :)
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