When Chat GPT 4o came out in late March, I was in Savannah, Georgia, looking at real estate and trying to convince my husband that we could do magic tricks with paint. Describing what you are envisioning to a spouse isn’t easy, and this new version of AI wizardry felt, to me, like a fairy godmother capable of granting all my wishes. For the first time ever, I could quickly create renderings of what I was imagining in the exact same rooms we were looking at: getting my zany ideas across in a way that was unimaginable on Chat GPT even a week before. The night I discovered what the new version could do, I was up until nearly midnight inputting my ideas, gobsmacked when they would be visualized on my laptop in minutes.But for design industry professionals, the concept of Chat GPT 4o has both its perks and its pitfalls. Here’s what you need to know.What is Chat GPT 4o and how do you make renderings with it?Released on March 25th, 2025, Open AI’s Chat GPT 4o allows you to create renderings tailored to exact rooms fairly quickly. It’s helpful to be precise—dare I say (ahem) robotic—in your instructions. For example, to try to show my husband what painting a home’s existing faux Tuscan kitchen cabinets black might look like, I would upload an image of said cook space and then input a very clear command: “Restyle image with black cabinets keep all details.” And yes, the words “keep all details” are important, lest you end up with an entirely different imaginary kitchen. (She’s a good intern, but she can get confused.)How will Chat GPT 4o change things for designers?“When people talk about all the new AI that's coming out, it brings back memories of 15 years ago when Instagram was rolling out,” says Suzanne Sykes, a designer in Winnetka, Illinois. “I feel like there was such a divide in the industry between the older and the younger designers.”Paul Mencel, owner of custom solid wood furniture maker Philadelphia Table Company, uses Chat GPT to convey his ideas. “For me it’s [a tool] like the calculator was, right? I just used it the other day, for example, to pitch a bed idea because it’s expensive and it takes a lot of time to do proper drawings.” Mencel is quick to point out to those he is working with whenever his concepts were ‘drawn’ with AI. “You need to have a ton of language in place upfront basically saying, ‘Hey, this is AI generated. This isn’t exactly what it is. This is just to help convey the ideas a little better.’”Mencel will also purposefully ask the AI program to produce a sketch or a watercolor rather than a photorealistic rendering. “This way it’s not so close to something that somebody can get really attached to. That’s my big fear—that they'd be like, ‘Oh wow, I really love the grain of this wood.’ I’m like, well, that’s a digital creation!”