Is AI taking our jobs?

I recently came across a reel on Instagram, by Shawn Kanungo, a recognized strategist and a keynote speaker. There was thrilling excitement in his voice as he announced the Sketchup + Claude partnership. He spoke about how an image of a floor plan can be input to Claude to generate a 3D model.

Now, we all saw that coming. We are witnessing the boom of AI with each blink of an eye. I, myself have been chatting with Chat-GPT for under 3 years now. The time for architecture collab was due soon.

Shawn's words intrigued me and so, I spent some time Saturday morning doing the same. I took an image of a floor plan of a random apartment and asked Claude Opus 4.6 to generate a CAD file. 

1st prompt - "is there a way for me to give you a floor plan and you export it into a cad file or a 2D rhino file?"

However, it couldn't produce a CAD file but a dxf file that could be used on various software’s. 

The input for the first version was plain and simple. It did not do a good job. It did not read the thickness of the wall neither were doors and window placement correct, nor was the size of the apartment correct. However the layers were okay.

Result of 1st prompt

 2nd prompt - "It is all wrong, I would like the walls with thickness of 12" and I don't need furniture"

The second time around I asked for wall thickness, again a simple sentence. And yet again, it was not correct. However this time it got the size of the apartment right.

Result of 2nd prompt

3rd prompt - “I have this floor plan *inserts image*, carefully understand the image and the plan mentioned here. Do not make any mistake. Once you understand it perfectly, create and give me dxf file that I can load on Rhino.”

The third prompt was in Claude Opus 4.8. What I got was a better plan with some mistakes. It thought the patio had windows and some not-so-logical door swings.

Result of 3rd prompt

 4th prompt - “there is no window in the bedroom, the patio doesn’t have swing doors, they have sliding doors and the kitchen sink counter has half height wall continuous with the closet wall. Can you make a 3dm file in Rhino?”

For the last time, I asked it to create a 3D model. It made all the walls 9' high which was fair. No prompt for the roof, so no roof.

Result of 4th prompt

What seemed like a fun Saturday morning exercise also made me think about designers who heavily use 3D design software's like Sketchup and Rhino. It took me back to architecture school where students spent hours building models in these software's. It has been 5 years since I graduated with a masters and the world seems to be taking a turn or even more so, moving at lighting fast speed. 

The most important aspect of AI is going to be how we talk to these AI bots - It is nothing but what you ask it to do.  Especially in architecture where we are visual artists, and visual creators and our language is visual. 

When I say we need to learn how to talk to AI, I retrace all the steps I took while commanding AI in this exercise. Why did I ask it to give me a CAD file? Could I have given it the exact overall dimensions of the apartment? Could have I listed the exact number of windows, and doors in the house? 

I see Claude (or any AI tool) as a brain. To respond and create, it needs a stimulus. Since coding is a language, and chatting with an AI bot is new language we need to learn and adapt, I ask - Do Architects need to be coders as well? It is surely in the nascent/baby stage right now but I expect it to grow and become a responsible companion. How long will that take? Time will tell.

The first wave of AI products are already here, mainly used by software engineers since they are the creators/coders. As compared to Chat-GPT i.e. a simple chatting model for every day use such as asking for food recipes, or DIY craft ideas, etc. AI is also seeping into many disciplines. We as architects (the users) must surely think or want Revit to be smarter, maybe AI can do that? 

While I grapple with this new technology at hand, I am constantly reminded by my peers to not fight it but jump on the boat that is AI. It is going to be a journey of learning and unlearning as it grows with us. There was a internet boom some 20 years back, now there is AI, maybe in the next 20 years there will be Quantum and in the 40 - nuclear power. 

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