Comment by dmurray
Yes, it seems like the same method (a thin polymer mask of which a computer record exists) could be used in a completely human-driven process. Just allowing restorers to try a few different things to see what works would probably speed up their process immensely.
There's probably some other grant money they can get down the line for a completely AI-less process, but obviously there's a lot more funding for AI than for art restoration.
It's conceptually similar to current restoration techniques, but, the real innovation is in doing the whole thing as one piece ahead of time rather than requiring somebody to get in there with tiny brushes after a transparent base layer is completed.
It's also worth noting that this doesn't help with the first half of most restorations, which is removing crud and wear and often painstakingly undoing previous alterations or low-quality restorations. There's actually a pretty long history of paintings being altered to fit current fashions or otherwise mucked with in ways that make modern art historians cringe.