Is AI an Academic Threat to Reject or a Complementary Tool to Embrace? Case Study of Senior Interior Design Studio in Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into design education is no longer optional; it has become an essential tool for enhancing innovative design and preparing students for data-driven practice and rapid technological acceleration. However, ignoring AI risks professional irrelevance; it introduces a range of concerns about students’ cognitive skills and comes with many drawbacks in the education process, as it threatens the attainment of learning outcomes, renders a fair assessment process unachievable, and places academic integrity in a vulnerable position. Using a qualitative case study approach, this research employs semi-structured interviews with 27 senior-year students in the interior design department to gain in-depth academic insights into how AI influenced their design process in their term project and its impact on their cognitive development and decision -making. Instructors’ observations on students’ skills, their pace in the project, and their end-products were documented. This study demonstrates that integrating AI into design education cannot be avoided, making a new paradigm for addressing design education inevitable. Based on the analysis, the paper proposes a conceptual framework outlining key dimensions in teaching and assessing strategies in design education adopting AI, focusing on analysis, critical thinking, reasoning, and process rather than on the end-product and its presentation.