PRESS RELEASE: Small Business, Big Ideas: AI Helps This Australian Manufacturer Launch 13 New Products in 8 Weeks
While AI headlines are often dominated by Silicon Valley startups, one small Australian manufacturer is proving that meaningful innovation can happen closer to home.
The Cornice Store (https://cornicestore.com.au), a Melbourne-based producer of building material, has quietly built an AI-assisted design system that transformed its product development workflow, helping the company launch 13 new products in just two months.
Since the public launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, the hype around artificial intelligence has been hard to ignore. At The Cornice Store, Australia’s leading supplier of lightweight cornice products, the team was fascinated by the possibilities AI could bring to their small manufacturing and retail operation.
“Being a manufacturing business, production happens very much in the physical space,” said a spokesperson for The Cornice Store. “So we knew the immediate opportunities for efficiency would come from supporting services like marketing and administration. We decided to focus on a specific barrier to growth that had been plaguing us for some time.”
Because The Cornice Store owns its production process, it can develop and test new designs quickly, but taking those ideas to market proved more challenging.
“Every new product required external designers to create consistent, high-quality marketing imagery,” they explained. “That meant managing multiple freelancers, with varying styles, long turnaround times, and escalating costs. It was slowing down our innovation efforts.”
Eager to find a smarter way, the team began experimenting with AI. They trained AI agents on the fundamentals of their product category, market context, and design elements valued by customers. Once the system understood that foundation, it began contributing suggestions for product iterations and workflow improvements.
“The speed at which AI generates usable code was astonishing — but we also quickly learned how important human oversight is to keep things on track,” the team noted.
The result was a suite of proprietary in-house tools that can transform a simple product profile image into a realistic in-situ rendering in multiple room settings — complete with customisable lighting and décor options.
“The most impressive part is the flexibility we’ve built in. We can adjust wall and ceiling colours, LED placement, camera angles, room dimensions, and more. We can now provide customers with professional visualisations in a matter of minutes.”
In the eight weeks since introducing these tools, The Cornice Store has launched 13 new products across two ranges. “It’s a game changer,” they said. “Our new cornice cover products have been incredibly popular — and probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day for months under our old process. We’ve refreshed our entire catalogue, saved hours of repetitive design work, and reduced costs. We’re more excited than ever to see what’s next as we integrate AI further into our business.”
The team report that the investment they made into the tools and development has already yielded an impressive 960% return through incremental sales over a period of 8 weeks – not counting efficiencies achieved in operations – a success by any measure.
“We have developed a simple tool for a very specific application, but it has demonstrated the potential of the technology. It’s hard to imagine the levels of creativity and productivity that will be achieved when this type of development capability is understood, adopted and actively utilized at scale.”
About The Cornice Store
The Cornice Store manufactures lightweight, recycled-content XPS cornice for Australian interiors. The range is designed for fast installation, reduced waste, and a painted finish that matches the look of traditional plaster. Learn more at https://cornicestore.com.au.
