How She’s Merging Neuroscience, AI, and Design to Change How We Live | Ep 235 with Lesley Ray Founder of BrainHome

Summary

Founder's Story: Merging Neuroscience, AI, and Design with Lesley Ray of BrainHome

Episode 235 | Release Date: June 20, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 235 of IBH Media's "Founder's Story," host Daniel engages in a captivating conversation with Lesley Ray, the visionary founder of BrainHome. This episode delves into the innovative fusion of neuroscience, artificial intelligence (AI), and interior design to revolutionize how we inhabit and interact with our living spaces. Lesley shares her journey, the inspiration behind BrainHome, and the profound impact her company's technology is having on enhancing health and wellness through personalized home environments.

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The Intersection of AI, Neuroscience, and Design

Innovative Concept Implementation

Daniel opens the discussion by highlighting the groundbreaking nature of BrainHome's approach:

"We have chats about neuroscience and brain health, but we've never had anyone that is mixing in AI, brain health and your home... it sounds like something that's already 30 years in the future, but it's actually happening right now."
[02:02]

Lesley explains how BrainHome leverages AI and neuroscience within the design process to prioritize clients' health and wellness:

"All the design decisions that we are making for the clients up front in the design process are based on their health and wellness... we're using those decisions to inform design decisions."
[02:37]

She emphasizes that traditional interior design primarily engages sight and touch, whereas BrainHome incorporates multisensory elements to influence cognitive and emotional well-being:

"There's a lot of emerging research showing the impact of our environments and multisensory elements on our brain health and our overall health and wellness."
[02:50]

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Personalized Home Environments

Adaptive Living Spaces

Lesley elaborates on how BrainHome's technology enables homes to learn and adapt to the inhabitants' needs over time:

"The home continues learning and adapting over time to learn how to support you best."
[02:50]

Daniel probes into practical applications, questioning whether the technology can alleviate stress by adjusting the home environment:

"If I'm stressed at home, will my home do something to help me de-stress?"
[04:05]

Lesley confirms this capability, describing how the system can modify soundscapes, scents, and temperature to create a more relaxed state:

"If you're feeling stressed out or you're feeling anxious, then the home would play a certain soundscape or it would emit a certain scent or adjust the temperature to help you get into a more relaxed state."
[04:18]

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Client Experiences and Feedback

Real-World Impact

Lesley shares a recent project where BrainHome's personalized sequences significantly improved her clients' sleep quality:

"They said they feel so much more refreshed every morning, and they just feel absolutely great because they're able to now have this really immersive experience where the entire room adapts to them to help them stay asleep and get more restful sleep."
[06:39]

This testimonial underscores the tangible benefits of integrating AI and neuroscience into home design, highlighting enhanced well-being and personalized comfort.

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Technical Implementation and Customization

Tailored Solutions

When asked about the technical setup, Lesley details the assessment process that tailors the home environment to each individual's responses to various stimuli:

"We go through an assessment in the beginning where we are able to assess how you respond to different sounds and different scents... we can use AI to create the personalized and customized soundscapes."
[08:02]

She also mentions the potential integration with wearables to sync real-time health data, allowing the home to adjust proactively:

"By having that data, that's what allows us to have things track along with biomarkers... it's all about what their comfort level is and what, you know, their interest is in, you know, having that data."
[08:59]

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Vision for the Future

Preventative Health and Expanded Applications

Lesley envisions BrainHome's technology as a tool for preventative medicine, leveraging the home environment to detect and address potential health issues early:

"We see your home and your environment as being a preventative medicine tool... by having the house being able to adapt and being able to intervene early when it starts to detect any sort of potential health issues."
[09:33]

She discusses the potential for scaling the technology beyond residential spaces to commercial settings like hotels and private offices, although personalization in large open spaces presents challenges:

"There is a lot of capability for it to be used in commercial, specifically in places like hotels... the challenge with doing it in a commercial space like an office where you have... it becomes very difficult to personalize it."
[18:08]

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Personal Journey and Inspiration

From Musician to Innovator

Lesley's unique background as a musician informs her approach to design and technology. She recounts her experience performing with the band Styx at the age of 17, which ignited her passion for blending creativity with functionality:

"I grew up as a violinist... I played with them when I was 17. We performed to like 6,000 people. It was incredible."
[16:50]

This artistic foundation drives her innovative thinking, enabling her to create immersive and responsive home environments that resonate on a personal level.

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AI's Role in Transforming Interior Design

Enhancing Creativity and Efficiency

When discussing the broader implications of AI in interior design, Lesley is optimistic about its potential to enhance creativity and streamline processes:

"AI is kind of allowing technology to be more accessible... it's really exciting about using it to enhance our service and transform our service in a way that wasn't really possible before."
[15:00]

She believes AI will not only handle administrative tasks but also inspire unique design ideas, making interior design more personalized and innovative.

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Closing Thoughts

Looking Ahead

As the conversation wraps up, Lesley shares her excitement for the future of BrainHome and the evolving role of AI in enhancing human environments:

"I can't wait to see the future of this and just how it really is going to impact the interior design space and how we feel."
[22:00]

Daniel expresses his enthusiasm for BrainHome's mission, highlighting the transformative potential of their work in making living spaces smarter and more supportive of individual health and well-being.

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Connect with BrainHome

Interested listeners can learn more about BrainHome and its pioneering work by visiting www.mybrainhome.com and following their social media channels at My Brain Home.

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Notable Quotes:

• “We use AI and Neuroscience in our design process to prioritize clients' health and wellness.” — Lesley Ray [02:37]
• “If you're feeling stressed out, the home would play a certain soundscape or emit a certain scent to help you relax.” — Lesley Ray [04:18]
• “We see your home and environment as being a preventative medicine tool.” — Lesley Ray [09:33]
• “AI allows technology to be more accessible, enhancing creativity and transforming services.” — Lesley Ray [15:00]

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Conclusion

Lesley Ray's BrainHome represents a visionary leap in how we design and interact with our living spaces. By intertwining neuroscience and AI, BrainHome not only personalizes home environments but also actively contributes to the inhabitants' health and well-being. This episode of "Founder's Story" provides invaluable insights into the future of smart living and the profound impact of technology-driven design.

Transcript

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[Daniel]

We interview a lot of people and we have a lot of chats about AI. We also interview a lot of people. We have chats about neuroscience and brain health, but we've never had anyone that is mixing in AI, brain health and your home. So your home is built around your brain and it's adapting with you using AI. I've never Leslie, this is, I don't want to say the craziest thing I've ever heard, but it sounds like it's something that's already 30 years in the future, but it's actually happening right now. Can you tell me about how does this work?

[Leslie]

Yeah, so how it works is so with all the advances in AI and being able to develop technology more rapidly and allowing things to be able using machine learning, what we're able to do is we're able to use AI and Neuroscience in our design process. So that means that all the design decisions that we are making for the clients up front in the design process are based on their health and wellness. So their health and wellness is at the forefront of every decision we make, and then we're using those decisions to inform design decisions. But if you consider how traditional interior design works, traditional interior design only counts for the senses of sight and touch. But as human beings, we take in our surroundings through all of our senses, and that collectively informs how we think and how we feel. There's a lot of emerging research showing the impact of our environments and multisensory elements on our brain health and our overall health and wellness. And so by making those decisions in the design process and then also integrating those through the technology of the home, then the home continues learning and adapting over time to learn how to support you best.

[Daniel]

We had Will, I am on as a guest, and he was talking through how he's using his music linked to a Mercedes car that adapts to how.

[Co-host]

You feel while you're driving.

[Daniel]

Kind of reminds me of. Obviously, this is something much broader, but our conversation was around customization through all.

[Co-host]

Parts of our life.

[Daniel]

So now that AI is so advanced and you're mixing, you know, neuroscience and stuff, how do you see this impacting people in the sense of. So if I'm stressed at home, will my home do something to help me de. Stress?

[Leslie]

Yes, yes, exactly. And so it's. It's really based on what the client is looking for. You know, some clients want the home to adapt more intuitively on its own. Some people want to be able to still have some sort of manual control over that. But. But. Yes, exactly. So if you're feeling stressed out or you're feeling anxious, then the home would play a certain soundscape or it would emit a certain scent or adjust the temperature to help you get into a more relaxed state. And it's all happening in the background, so it's not something that you would necessarily notice, but it's all just to help you get back into that more relaxed state and just stay in that state more consistently.

[Daniel]

So how does this work? Like, how does it physically do it? How do you set this up?

[Co-host]

And how do you even.

[Daniel]

How do you, even when you work with this client, understand, like, what they.

[Co-host]

What they want or need?

[Daniel]

Because I would imagine most people, they don't even know the possibilities to know what I want.

[Leslie]

Yeah. Yeah. So. Well, thankfully, because we're based in the Bay Area, so a lot of our clients are, you know, pretty. Pretty Aware, they have some sense of, you know, the various capabilities or abilities of AI. So one of the rooms that we focus on or we start with is in the bedroom. Because the majority of the research that's coming out shows the impact of your sleeping environment, specifically circadian lighting disruption, environmental noise, scent, temperature fluctuation, and various other elements. And that impact on our sleep is showing a correlation to future neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. And so the way that it works in the bedroom is that the AI, it continues adapting throughout the night. And so that's through biomarker, or we have, you know, we've talked with clients about installing sensors for motion sensors, but biomarker seems to work pretty well. And so it's able to adjust and adapt overnight as well as having a specific slumber sequence in the evening where there's a sequence of. It adjusts the lights, it changes the light temperature, emits a certain scent, it plays a soundscape, and then arise sequence in the morning.

[Daniel]

So after you've. You've been doing these designs, what are you hearing from previous customers and clients as to how this has impacted their life?

[Leslie]

Yeah, so we actually, we just finished a bedroom installation where we did installation very similarly to what I just described, although they didn't want to go quite as heavy on the AI portion of it yet. So we, we installed it to have future AI capabilities. And so then we're just going to continue talking with them to integrate the AI, you know, kind of like ramp it up as they feel comfortable with it. But, yeah, they've been super happy. They said they feel great. It was a couple where she was having trouble falling asleep at night and he was having trouble waking up in the morning. And so we created a super personalized slumber sequence and rise sequence to, you know, tailored for both of them. And so, yeah, they were super happy with it. They said they, you know, feel so much more refreshed every morning, and they just feel absolutely great because they're able to now have this really immersive experience where the entire room adapts to them to help them, you know, stay asleep and get more. More restful sleep.

[Daniel]

So what makes it work? I'm thinking like, you know, my wife, same thing. I fall asleep quick. I probably wake up early. A lot of times my wife might have harder time falling asleep than I do. We're almost like opposites many times, which just sounds like that couple as well. So if I wanted to do something like this, I'm. I'm genuinely curious. Like how does it actually work?

[Leslie]

Yeah, so we go through, in this particular instance, because it's with the bedroom, we go through an assessment in the beginning where we are able to assess how you respond to different sounds and different scents. And then we also, we have different pre made soundscapes that we use. But we also can use AI to create the personalized and customized soundscapes so that those are continuing to adapt to you as well. And then if you use wearables and you use those wearables throughout the night, we can sync it to your wearables as well. We didn't do that with this, the project I mentioned, but we, we can do that and we're talking with clients about doing that as well. And so by having that data, that's what allows us to have things track along with biomarkers or it really is up to the client because different clients have different comfort levels with different types of biomarkers. And so it's all about what their comfort level is and what, you know, their interest is in, you know, having that data and seeking all of it.

[Daniel]

We were just talking to a company that is at the foremost of checking biological age. And I wonder, as you're talking around, how, how does some, you think, what do you see in the future? Like, are you seeing, like, do you think this will kind of link up with maybe a company that checks age? So every day you wake up, you're like, oh, today I'm 45, yesterday I was 38. Or, or how this is all, how do you see all these things coming together? Because you mentioned connecting with wearables, I mean, is really mind blowing. But how do you see the future?

[Leslie]

Yeah, yeah. So we see your, your home and your environment as being a preventative medicine tool. So we see all of these, having all of these things synced together and connecting these to your health data points, that this is what is going to be used as a prevention tool. And so, you know, by having the house being able to adapt and being able to intervene early when it starts to detect any sort of potential health issues, then we're able to really help you live a healthier life. And your home is going to be a big part of that. Because if you consider. Oh, sorry. Oh, I was going to say, you know, because we spend 90% of our time indoors, so we're in our homes all the time. And so it only makes sense that they should be a greater ally in helping us and protecting us.

[Daniel]

I can't wait till I have a robot, like a humanoid robot. That can also link to my house. Like it knows everything. It hears me upstairs, comes up, you know, gets something from the store. I don't know. It's. I'm very turns on the lights for me. So yeah, when you, when you think of like interior design, there's there's this big talk around how, how many jobs is AI going to eliminate? This seems to be big talk around AI, but I'm, I'm like you. Like I'm thinking about ways that AI can disrupt industries, make them better. How do you future of interior design since this seems like this will be the future.

[Leslie]

Yeah, I think for traditional interior design services there are a lot of parts of it.

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[Leslie]

That will be automated or will be enhanced by AI. And you know, I think and some of that is the administrative grunt work, some of that is things like, you know, editing renderings, which can be very time consuming. And so I think those are all great things. I think it'll probably enhance and help with brainstorming and coming up with different unique ideas. But I also think it can be great way to really just make interior design something that's different and more unique. And so that's what really we're really excited about using it, you know, to enhance our service and transform our service in a way that wasn't really possible before or was a lot more difficult to do before. And so I think you're going to be seeing that with a Lot of service based industries because AI is kind of allowing technology to be more accessible to people who previously either might not have had the means to develop custom technology for their companies or it just wasn't really part of the conversation. So I'm really excited to see it. I think as long as people are responsible about how they're developing it and it's truly to enhance their product and they're not just doing it just to. Doing it just to do it. I think, yeah, I'm really excited about it. I think it allows for a whole new level of creativity that we're not used to seeing seeing.

[Daniel]

When you told people about Brain Home, did they think you were crazy or a genius?

[Leslie]

Well, so I came up with Brain Home because of my background as a musician. So I grew up as a violinist. And when I was a teenager, you used to perform with all these different rock artists. And so the way I came up with Brain Home was because I realized that I should be mixing my experience as a musician and as a designer. So once I explained it that way, everyone was like, oh my gosh, this makes so much sense. Like, obviously this makes so much sense for you. But without that piece, people were just like, what?

[Daniel]

Who was the, the most exciting person that you got to either go on tour with or play with?

[Leslie]

My favorite artist that I love playing with is the band Styx. I played with them when I was, I performed with them when I was 17. We performed to like 6,000 people. It was, it was incredible. They're just absolutely amazing people. And I just, yeah, it was, it was amazing experience.

[Daniel]

How do you get over the nerves when you go in front of 6,000 people?

[Leslie]

You just kind of get used to it, I guess. I mean, I had, at that point, I had been performing for. That was the largest crowd I ever performed with, but I performed for like a thousand people or 500 people. So at that point, when you're playing in, you know, massive amphitheater like that, you just kind of look at the immediate crowd and then you just sort of forget about everything beyond that. So you just kind of get used to it. But once I got used to performing when I was a kid, I loved it. I really, I don't perform as much anymore, but I really miss it.

[Daniel]

What do you see as the biggest potential of an ask that somebody could do with this? So, you know, right now you're in residential. Could this move into a whole hotel? Could this move into commercial? Like, obviously, you know, some people have a 2,000 square foot home, some people have an 80,000 square foot home. Like where do you see this going in terms of the scale of how this is versus you know, just maybe a smaller residential or like a room or a small residential home.

[Leslie]

So I think there is a lot of capability for it to be used in commercial, specifically in places like hotels and places that have that are designed for smaller groups of people. The challenge with doing it in a commercial space like an office where you have especially if you consider like an open office where you have a lot of people, because I used to design offices was I used to design a lot of offices for tech companies. And if you consider an open office area where you have like 50 people in one room, then it becomes very difficult to personalize it because you have so many people in one space.

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[Leslie]

And so then it becomes irrelevant because ultimately everybody's brain is different and everybody's brain interprets their surroundings in different ways. So when you start to design or use the technology for that many people, then it basically becomes irrelevant. Now, AI does enable more of that specific personalization, but ultimately, once you have, if you have that many people in one concentrated area, it still makes it more challenging. But I think in places like private offices, hotel rooms. Absolutely. We're looking into hotels as well and other places like that. I think it's, that's definitely an area that we see.

[Co-host]

So, Leslie, thank you for joining us.

[Daniel]

I mean, this is incredible. I've heard everything around the uses of AI and I have to say I've never heard AI being used like this. And it's like I'm watching a sci fi movie happening. But I'm very excited for how it can positively impact a lot of people. So if people want to get in touch with you, they want to find out more, how can they do?

[Leslie]

So, yeah, thank you so much. You can get in touch with us at our website, www.mybrainhome.com. also on social media at My Brain.

[Daniel]

Home, the coolest company, Brain Home. I love the website My Brain Home. But Leslie is, I mean, come back in like six months from now. I want to hear exactly the most wild thing that you've had to create at some home. But I'm, I can't wait to see the future of this and just how it really is going to impact the interior design space and how we feel. But thank you so much for all you do. And joining us on Founders Story.

[Leslie]

Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Daniel. I really appreciate it.