Can AI Arrange Flowers Better Than a Florist?

ALEXANDRIA, VA — On the second day of the Billington CyberSecurity Summit, I attended a workshop called “Frontier AI for Cyber Defense: OpenAI’s Perspective and Live Demo for Government Defenders,” presented by Felipe Millon and Patrick Falvey. The room was focused on high-stakes questions: how frontier models can help defenders detect threats, understand complex information and act faster.

After the demonstration, I waited around to ask Millon a question: How could I best apply ChatGPT to my flower business, Atelier Ashley Flowers?

He loved that I was a florist. (Most people who work in corporate or defense love meeting a real-life florist.) The timing was particularly good because ChatGPT had just updated its image capabilities and had specifically used flower arranging in its latest advertisement.

Millon showed me the ChatGPT Images 2.0 commercial, where a woman dropped a loose bunch of flowers onto a table, photographed them and asked for ideas for an arrangement that would feel “classic, but a little wild.” The loose flowers were instantly translated into several different design possibilities using those same flowers.

I was going to have to try it for myself.

From a Pile of Stems to Three Points of View

When I got back to my studio, I gathered a big pile of flowers I planned to use for three designs for one of my favorite clients. I would make the arrangements, photograph them and finish my “real work.” Then I could go home and reward myself by testing ChatGPT Images 2.0.

My first query was general: Based on these flowers, make me three different designs.

It thought for a little over a minute and returned three arrangements in brass footed vases.

Interesting.

Now I wanted to make it more specific.

I showed ChatGPT photographs of the actual vases and bases I had used, before adding any flowers. For each one, I asked it to show me three versions: round and tight, round and bouncy/wild, and wild and asymmetrical.

I also told it to remove the dahlias and phalaenopsis orchids because I had ultimately decided not to use them.

The generated images were polished provocations, several possible outcomes made visible before I cut a single stem.

Time to show it what I could do

Next, I showed ChatGPT the arrangements I had actually created and enjoyed the flattery of being told that my designs were far superior to its renderings.

It went on to describe how my arrangements differed in balance, density, movement and mood. The exchange had reversed: first I asked the model to visualize my instructions; then I asked it to look at my decisions and explain what I had done.

For an experienced designer, that kind of analysis can put language around instinctive choices. For a student, it could help develop a vocabulary for discussing form. For a client, it could make the difference between saying, “I like that one,” and understanding that she prefers compact formality, garden movement or sculptural asymmetry.

I also asked ChatGPT to identify the flowers in my finished arrangements without giving it a materials list. It did a fairly decent job considering I used some obscure varieties.

I could easily see myself building a library of blooms and using this technology to streamline proposals.

And there is much further I could take ChatGPT inside my Atelier. I could feed it my invoices and overhead, labor costs and delivery information. It could help with routing, pricing and margins in ways that are simply not my particular area of expertise. That will come in time, and my business will likely be healthier for it.

But you don’t have to be a florist to experiment with this.

Say you go to Trader Joe’s, and if you see me there, just pretend you don’t, and you’re trying to decide which flowers to buy. Take a photograph of a few bunches and ask ChatGPT to show you what they might look like together. Then ask, “If you added one flower or color, what would it be?” Or, “If you took one away, what would it be?”

And now everyone is a florist.

You might think that would bother me. After more than 20 years of education and dedication to my craft, shouldn’t I be worried that technology can make some part of it instantaneous? Make me irrelevant or obsolete?

I’m not.

Flowers, even Trader Joe’s flowers, are expensive. They take time to arrange, and for an amateur, sometimes a lot of time. Many of my clients are busy. They want to enjoy beauty without having to work for it, and that is a service I provide. Alot of them also take pride and pleasure in supporting a human artist, in participating in the patronage of more beauty.

Besides, my personal philosophy has always been that everyone should have flowers.

Flowers make everything better.