One of the biggest news items of the last couple of years has been the rise of Artificial Intelligence, and more specifically, of ChatGPT. AI has been integrated into everything from web searches to document preparation to image creation to video rendering. That being said, AI couldn’t possibly make its way into the traditional world of selling vintage and antique rugs, right? Or could it?
Before we get to AI and ChatGPT, let’s take a step back and give an overview of some of the technological advances that have taken place in the rug industry in the past quarter century.
The ways in which area rugs are marketed and sold have evolved dramatically over the past two and a half decades, largely due to the advent of the internet, the movement toward rugs being prevalent on vendors’ websites, and the resulting level of easy, instant access people now have to an incredibly broad selection of area rugs
. Twenty-five years ago, for a buyer to see vintage rugs, for example, they often had to make an appointment to visit a rug vendor’s showroom and typically needed an interme diary, such as an interior designer or architect, to provide them with that level of access.
As the years have gone by and as rug inventories have become increasingly available online, both on the rug ven dors’ own websites and also on various ecommerce plat forms and via internet searches, what used to require an appointment, an intermediary, and a showroom visit can now all be done from the comfort of a buyer’s home. And not only from home but from anywhere they might be and from all manner of devices—from computers to tablets to smartphones. With a few taps and swipes, buyers can now browse thousands upon thousands of rugs from all over the world, many of which also display pricing, giving the buyers more information, access, price points, comparables, and control than ever before.
The process of getting there was not easy. Rug vendors who were accustomed to the traditional ways of running a traditional business had to learn and evolve along with the technology, going from having their rug inventories only vis ible in their showrooms at limited hours and behind closed doors to being visible at all times on websites and apps with updated photos and descriptions, pricing and condi tion reports, and many other details that were previously given in person.
This digital revolution has in many ways been a boon to the rug industry, exposing rug inventories in a given location not only to local clients and buyers, but also to internet viewers all around the world. As a result, rug sellers have found new revenue streams from buyers via their websites, ecommerce platforms, and elsewhere but at the cost of maintaining a high-level web presence and also in giving up some of the privacy and secrecy about their treasured carpet collections that once pervaded the traditional area rug trade.
The latest step in this online evolution is the rise AI and ChatGPT, as well as others such as Microsoft’s Copilot, Goo gle’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude.
I recently discovered this first-hand when a client who had browsed our website came in to see the rugs in person at our New York City showroom. They narrowed their selection to one rug from us and one rug from another vendor.
The buyer was very interested in our rug but was convinced that the rug we were offering wasn’t as old or as valuable as we were suggesting so should command a lower price. I explained that from my many years of experience I could point to numerous features in both the weave and construction of the rug, as well as its stylistic features and color combination, comfortably placing the rug within a certain vintage.
The client listened and understood but was still not convinced. They kept fiddling with their phone and texting someone, and repeatedly said that they had to check with the “big boss” about this decision.
Over the years, I’ve seen this many times where a buyer has difficulty making a decision so will turn to a spouse, a sibling, a friend, or even their pets to help determine which way to go and what decision to make.
In this case, though, the “big boss” was none of these. It was not a spouse, a family member, a friend, or even a pet— it was ChatGPT.
The buyer repeatedly consulted with ChatGPT throughout the showroom visit as part of their decision-making process, and based on its prompts, they would take more and more photos of different parts of the rug, feed it to the AI, and then come back increasingly convinced and resolute that the rug was younger than indicated, and therefore, was not as desirable as they had hoped.
I patiently explained in numerous ways how the images being fed to ChatGPT did not account for the quality of wool, the thickness of the pile, the type of construction, the specific combination of design elements, the patina of age, and many of the other markers from the rug that placed it squarely within a certain range of time.
Regardless of how many ways I explained the situation, the buyer was so deeply hooked in to the responses that ChatGPT was relaying to them on their phone, that they declined the rug, and ultimately went in a different direction.
Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, and other similar AI agents are here, and they are the next big step in the evolution of how people interact with their phones, computers, and online searches.
That being said, as intelligent as Artificial Intelligence might be, it doesn’t know everything and is limited to the data that is already available to it via the LLM (Large Language Model) on which it is based and to other visual and textual input (or lack thereof).
In the case illustrated above, you can see that ChatGPT was able to provide some information about rugs to the buyer who visited our showroom, but that information is not entirely accurate and has drawbacks and limitations. As the old saying goes, a little bit of information can be a dangerous thing.
While the world of area rugs has been greatly helped by the increased exposure we have obtained across the world wide web, as well as the 24/7/365 access that buyers now have to our rug inventories, we also have to learn and adapt to these new AI agents and help them help us in making our rugs as accessible and desirable to our buyers as they can possibly be.
To do so, we need to actively engage with ChatGPT and other AI agents by interacting with them in ways that help add relevant language and training to the respective LLMs. In the same way that we would train an intern or new employee, or design our websites to be as appealing and informational as possible, we also need to train AI and give it a stronger basis from which to correctly reply to our clientele. This involves having conversations and asking questions of our AI agents, correcting it when it answers inaccurately, and telling it what the desired answers or principles should be.
Much as we made the move from having our rug inventories not only available in our physical showrooms but also avail able digitally on our websites 24/7/365, we have to collectively make the move to understand how best to work with Artificial Intelligence and ChatGPT to have them work in our favor instead of working contrary to our efforts.
Not sure how to do that? Email me to discuss how to sell vintage rugs in the age of ChatGPT (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
Alternatively, you can always ask ChatGPT!