Why furniture designer Tyler Hays is ‘obsessed’ with AI episode artwork

EPISODE · Apr 29, 2026 · 1H 5M

Why furniture designer Tyler Hays is ‘obsessed’ with AI

from By Design · host Fast Company

Tyler Hays has made a career working with his hands. Making everything from couches to jigsaw puzzles to guitars, the BDDW founder and lead designer says he has now fallen for AI.  “I'm absolutely obsessed with it,” Hays says. “Every single thing you wanna know about … you can pick any subject and ask it in 10 different ways and spend an embarrassing amount of hours” As BDDW closes its SoHo showroom after 25 years, Hays joined By Design to reflect on his career and what’s next as he moves into a new chapter.  Plus, we get a dispatch from host Mark Wilson’s trip to Italy for Milan Design Week and Salone del Mobile.  We close with an edition of Hot or Not. Mentioned: Claude Design, a $545 cutting board, and a very special bike bell.

Tyler Hays has made a career working with his hands. Making everything from couches to jigsaw puzzles to guitars, the BDDW founder and lead designer says he has now fallen for AI.  “I'm absolutely obsessed with it,” Hays says. “Every single thing you wanna know about … you can pick any subject and ask it in 10 different ways and spend an embarrassing amount of hours” As BDDW closes its SoHo showroom after 25 years, Hays joined By Design to reflect on his career and what’s next as he moves into a new chapter.  Plus, we get a dispatch from host Mark Wilson’s trip to Italy for Milan Design Week and Salone del Mobile.  We close with an edition of Hot or Not. Mentioned: Claude Design, a $545 cutting board, and a very special bike bell.

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Why furniture designer Tyler Hays is ‘obsessed’ with AI

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This episode is 1 hour and 5 minutes long.

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This episode was published on April 29, 2026.

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Tyler Hays has made a career working with his hands. Making everything from couches to jigsaw puzzles to guitars, the BDDW founder and lead designer says he has now fallen for AI.  “I'm absolutely obsessed with it,” Hays says. “Every single thing...

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