Accelerating future scenario development with text-based GenAI (ChatGPT)

This case study describes the integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into a design workflow that envisions future scenarios for concept development. While image-based GenAI tools like MidJourney and Stable Diffusion have garnered attention from designers for their ability to visualise ideas rapidly, integrating textual GenAI, like ChatGPT-3.5, in design workflows has been less explored. This case study investigates how future thinking techniques can be digitized and accelerated using ChatGPT-3.5 to create a textual GenAI-embedded design workflow. Next, we test the workflow with postgraduate design students to speculate future scenarios, substantiate scenarios with existing circumstantial evidence, and develop a concept design based on the scenario. The outcomes highlight that GenAI suggested social changes from a range of disciplines, and designers still need to search for the source to clarify and evidence the changes manually. The case study concludes by describing the benefits of using textual GenAI in design workflows, and future research needed to strengthen the use of textual GenAI as a tool for design concept development.

keywords: future scenario; futures thinking; Horizon Scanning; Signal; Futures Wheel; Generative AI; ChatGPT; concept design

• with: Thom Luke
• year: September 2023 – April 2024
• for: Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA)
• download: Article