From Sketch to Final Plan: AI in Trade Fair Booth Design

Artificial intelligence is changing the way trade fair booths are designed. Ideas can be visualized, variations generated and designs refined in short time. This not only changes the pace of the design process but also the way clients and designers communicate.

The AUMA Organisers’ Outlook 2026/2027 illustrates the extent to which AI is already being used in the trade fair industry. According to the report, 87 percent of German trade fair organizers use AI applications in their daily work; last year, that figure was 70 percent. They are typically used for:

• Text-based tasks (88.1 percent of AI users)
• Data analysis (67.9 percent)
• Chatbots and virtual assistants (51.2 percent)
• Task automation (41.7 percent).

However, it all still starts with a creative idea. Generative AI can help speed up the visualization process. Users can describe a booth via text input, specify the style, setting or perspective and generate different versions. Existing images and sketches can also be used as a starting point.

“AI brings speed and variety, but no identity,”emphasizes Benjamin Bruder, CEO of OCTANORM-Vertriebs-GmbH. As a provider of modular systems and solutions for trade fair construction, octanorm also develops digital planning tools. With the octanorm ai booth designer, customers can use AI to visualize booth concepts, develop variations and refine them. However, the decision about which design best suits the brand still has to be made by a person. At the same time, rapid visualization is changing the nature of the briefing itself: “The image becomes the briefing,” says Bruder.

Joachim Kopf, Head of Digital Innovations at octanorm, describes this transformation using the octanorm’s ai booth designer as an example. The tool uses several AI models, each with different strengths. According to Kopf, in one instance, a roughly 30-page briefing was quickly transformed into images and videos with the tool. The visualizations were used to work with the client to verify that the requirements had been correctly understood. A long text document was transformed into a visual base for a discussion.

This raises a further question: How does a visualized idea become a concrete trade fair booth? A design must not only look good but also address practical considerations such as access points, conversation areas, storage space and the booth’s impact when viewed from distance.

The octanorm ai booth designer includes a planner that combines actual booth dimensions with visual design. Length, width, height and booth type can be specified and used to generate 3D geometry. Existing booth templates and CAD data can also be imported. The geometry can then be customized with graphics, materials and different colors.

That brings the visual design closer to the actual planning process. According to AUMA, 87 percent still view the integration of AI applications and processes as a significant or very significant challenge. At the same time, the study describes the industry as being on the edge between experimentation and integration. However, the responsibility for implementation does not disappear. “AI shortens the path to the idea, not the responsibility for implementation,” summarizes Benjamin Bruder.

The use of AI also raises questions about its environmental impact. Generative AI requires significant computing power and consequently energy. The extent of the emissions depends, among other things, on the used models, the computing infrastructure and the frequency of use. The International Energy Agency (IEA)expects CO₂ emissions from data centers to continue rising in the coming years due to their electricity consumption.

At the same time, AI can already include sustainability considerations into the design. The octanorm online tools already include a CO₂ calculator. In the future, it could also be integrated into the octanorm ai booth designer. Kopf describes it as follows: “The vision is that you’ll get a CO₂ value right away. If a company says, ‘CO₂ is important to us,’ we’ll be able to integrate that in the future. I think CO₂ will play a bigger role again.”

That means that CO₂ related information could be include into the design of a trade fair booth in the future. At the same time, it’s becoming clear that the use of AI in trade fair booth design goes beyond visualization. Initial ideas can quickly become concrete designs that can then be further developed in terms of requirements and resources. AI is becoming a tool that speeds up the design process and opens new possibilities. However, creative decision-making and responsibility for the specific design remain with humans.