Smart home AI renovation

Smart home AI renovation leverages artificial intelligence to automate and simplify home design, allowing users to get design plans, inspiration, and realistic visualizations by uploading room photos or floor plans.

AI tools can instantly generate interior design concepts, swap furniture, suggest color palettes, and even preview new flooring or walls, helping homeowners, renters, and designers quickly visualize and plan renovations. 

How Smart Home AI Renovation Works

1. Upload a Photo or Floor Plan: Start by providing a photo of your existing room or a digital floor plan.

2. Select Design Preferences: Choose from a range of styles, like modern, farmhouse, or Scandinavian, to guide the AI.

3. AI Generates Designs: The AI algorithm processes your input and generates realistic 2D, 3D, or VR renderings of your space, featuring personalized furniture placement, color schemes, and decor suggestions.

4. Customize and Refine: You can then adjust the AI-generated designs, swapping furniture, changing colors, or trying different materials using a drag-and-drop editor.

5. Visualize the Results: The platform provides high-resolution mockups, helping you visualize the final look before making any physical changes. 

Benefits of Using AI for Renovation

• Personalized Designs: AI tailors designs to your specific room dimensions, style preferences, and functional needs.

• Time and Cost Efficiency: Generate multiple design ideas quickly, saving time on manual planning and potentially reducing costs associated with professional designers for initial concepts.

• Realistic Visualization: See photorealistic images of your space with actual furniture and decor before you buy anything or hire contractors.

• Creative Inspiration: Explore a wide variety of design themes and get unique ideas for furniture, colors, and decor that you might not have considered otherwise. 

Popular AI Tools for Renovation

• Ideal House: Offers AI tools for home decor and interior design, providing design plans and inspiration.

• AI Home: Smart Interior Design: Allows users to upload a photo and get instant room makeovers with design concepts, furniture, and color suggestions.

• DecAI: Helps users visualize new furniture, colors, and textures in their own spaces, making room makeovers easy.

• Planner 5D: Provides a platform to create floor plans, move walls, and test different materials, with AI generating functional and aesthetic layouts.

• Remodel AI: A tool that helps with inspiration and visualizing different design concepts, including colors and textures. 

Source: Ziggurat Real Estate

UNDP: AI can steer human development and inclusive growth

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Philippines, in partnership with the Philippine Human Development Network (HDN), successfully held the Philippine launch of the 2025 Global Human Development Report (HDR) at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Headquarters in Makati City.

With this year’s report titled “A Matter of Choice: People and Possibilities in the Age of AI,” the launch brought together government officials, industry leaders, private sector representatives, academics, and civil society representatives to discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) can be a tool for inclusive and sustainable human development.

The 2025 HDR, first unveiled globally in May in Brussels, emphasizes the growing role of AI in reshaping economies and societies. It calls for deliberate choices to ensure that AI technologies empower people, narrow inequalities, and support development goals, particularly in developing countries like the Philippines.

During the launch, Dr. Selva Ramachandran, UNDP Philippines resident representative, noted: “At its core, the HDR is a call to action for governments, businesses, communities, and individuals to make deliberate choices about how AI is designed, used, and governed. If we make the right choices today, AI could become a force and an engine for freedom, opportunity, and progress, not just for a few, but for everyone.”

Dr. Philip Arnold Tuaño of the HDN, Commissioner Javey Francisco of the SEC, and Hon. Reynaldo Cancio from the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) also delivered opening remarks, underscoring the importance of inclusive innovation and robust policy frameworks.

“This year’s launch of the HDR comes at a pivotal moment. While the promise of AI grows even more visible, we are reminded that the path of progress is not inevitable. It is a matter of human choice and governance. This report highlights how AI can be harnessed to enhance human capabilities, rather than diminish,” noted Dr. Tuaño in his opening message.

Through digital transformation, the SEC is building a culture of transparency, measurable accountability, and ongoing performance enhancement. Commissioner Francisco highlighted that the SEC: “sees AI playing a growing role in our work — improving our ability to detect fraud, assess risk, and promote financial inclusion. AI can help us direct capital toward sustainable enterprises, enhance market integrity, and protect investors more effectively than ever before.”

The highlight of the event was a presentation of the HDR 2025 findings by Mohamed Shahudh, UNDP Philippines Economist, followed by a panel discussion titled “Shaping the AI Agenda for Human Empowerment and Inclusive Growth in the Philippines.”

The speakers explored the potential of AI to boost productivity, improve public services, and create new economic opportunities — while also addressing the risks of exclusion, job displacement, and uneven access to digital resources. Panelists stressed the need for forward-looking investments in education, research and development, and AI governance.

A recent IMF study cited during the event revealed that while one-third of Filipino workers are highly exposed to AI, 61% of those jobs could benefit from AI-enhanced productivity, particularly among young, urban, and college-educated workers.

The open forum that followed enabled participants to engage directly with the panelists on issues ranging from AI adoption in education and health to its implications for gender equity and development.

The 2025 HDR highlights that the Philippines, while making gains in its Human Development Index (HDI) — which rose to 0.720 in 2023 — continues to face challenges from inequality and climate vulnerability. The report argues for a pivot toward AI-augmented human development, where AI serves as a complement to human capabilities rather than a replacement.

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Source: Business World

Philippine jobs ‘exposed’ to AI risks estimated at 35-37%

Between 35% and 37% of Philippine jobs are at risk of displacement to artificial intelligence (AI), the World Bank said.

“About 35% to 37% are exposed” to AI risks, World Bank Group Lead Economist and Program Leader for the Prosperity Unit for Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines, Gonzalo Varela told a panel.

He also noted the high adoption of generative AI in the operations of the Information Technology Business Process Management industry.

The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines in December reported that 67% of its surveyed members are already using AI in customer service, data entry, and quality assurance, though challenges persist.

However, 8% of its members surveyed reduced their workforce because of AI.

In a separate report in August, the bank said the Philippines ranked fourth in ChatGPT traffic as of March 2024.

The World Bank noted that five middle-income countries — Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and the Philippines — showed “generative AI traffic levels significantly higher relative to the US than their other metrics would suggest.”

Bilal Khan Muhammad, social sector economist at the Asian Development Bank, noted that AI advancements are now impacting white-collar jobs, with many tasks being performed by AI tools.

“But then with the recent advancements in AI, we also see white-collar jobs have also been replaced by these AI tools where we are seeing a lot of tasks now can be performed by the AI itself.

You just ask the AI to help you with the representation or format a document or help you prepare a draft,” he said.

Mr. Varela said AI could be a “productivity shock” and provide opportunities for workers in the Philippines.

The government’s Trabaho Para Sa Bayan plan needs to explore how “to take advantage of the technological changes that are going to affect job creation,” he added.

At the same event, the departments of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev), Trade and Industry and Labor and Employment, launched the Trabaho Para sa Bayan Plan 2025-2034.

The 10-year plan aims to strengthen and future-proof the workforce.

The plan includes a research agenda to gauge the impact of AI on labor demand across various industries, job roles, and skill levels, and identify vulnerable occupations.

Labor Secretary Bienvenido E. Laguesma said the government has yet to firm up a national policy on AI.

“We believe that AI can supplement, can complement, but cannot replace,” he told reporters. 

Mr. Laguesma noted that the National Innovation Council, chaired by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., approved the creation of a think tank which will create a roadmap for AI use.

The think tank, whose lead agency will be the Department of Science and Technology, will guide the drafting of AI policy.

“Protection does not mean retention. It could mean upgrading, looking for another job, facilitating their employment, and the provision of social safety nets. That’s where we are,” Mr. Laguesma said.

Meanwhile, DEPDev Undersecretary Rosemarie G. Edillon noted that the low exposure of AI stems from the overall low level of technology adoption in the Philippines.

“Underlying all this, especially on the part of data and then creating models, this is really where you will need this policy on ethics, on the use of AI,” she added.

Source: Business World