MCM reposted this
Can AI help us design a better future? AI is coming. Fast. And although we may not be able to stop it. We can decide how we use it. For a while now, I’ve been asking: Why isn’t regenerative design—our best shot at a better future—scaling fast enough? We’ve seen great ideas in sustainable design. But too often, they feel like greenwashing. Surface-level fixes rather than true transformation. Regenerative design principles offer a way forward. But scaling it? That’s where we seem to be struggling. It’s slow. It’s complex. So here’s the big question: Could AI be the key to making it happen? Maybe the real barrier to achieving this nature-focused approach isn’t the technology. Maybe it’s our imagination. Our ability to see what’s possible. Used correctly, AI can challenge how we think. It has the potential to rewrite the rules. And maybe, just maybe, it could help us create a future where design isn’t just less bad—but actually makes things better. I know AI brings big questions. Big risks. But as long as the possibility exists for the design industry to use this powerful tool in building a better world, one that works with nature, not against it—Then I believe there's the opportunity to do so. What do you think? 👉 What’s stopping regenerative design from scaling? 👉 How could AI help? I’ll be diving deeper into this in the coming weeks.
I’ll chuck my ten pence in… AI will clearly be a game-changer for design, not just as a tool for efficiency but as a catalyst for creativity and scalability. Although I don’t think the challenge is just technological, it’s imaginative. How do we rethink our processes, workflows, and goals to fully embrace the possibilities it has to offer? You’ve experienced the genesis of our approach to this Deepak My thoughts are that if (and it’s a big IF) AI is used right, it won’t replace creativity, it’ll amplify it.
I'm looking forward to your future thoughts on this! If you fancy a chat with the view to a Design Insider opinion article please do send me a DM.
Interested to follow as you dig deeper to be honest...
Deepak Parmar whether we use AI or not, I think the point is clear, we must design a better future, one that supports sustainability in a planetary context but also one that considers human sustainability too. Sometimes I feel the sustainability agenda for the planet is not entirely aligned to our own sustainability.
Sustainable hospitality design. Founder of OSP
2moI think AI will be brilliant and transformational. But right now it is a management tool, not a leadership tool. Like most technologies, to begin with we will use it to try and keep doing things as we always have but faster. Then, eventually, we will start to harness it to do things differently when AI is included from the ground up. Maybe that is your chance with regenerative design. If AI can process the complex systems thinking and interconnections that lie at the heart of regenerative or sustainable design, maybe a clearer path can be plotted forward. Initially through pockets of excellence that can work within the existing systems that we have whilst pointing toward a better way that everyone will move towards.