Figma Introduces AI-Enhanced Design Features, Putting Adobe’s Reign to the Test

Figma Introduces AI-Enhanced Design Features, Putting Adobe's Reign to the Test

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Figma has added AI features to its design tool to speed up workflows and help teams create high-quality software. Now in limited beta, Figma AI can draft designs with a single prompt, explore different perspectives, enable rapid prototyping and iterating, and more. This move is part of Figma’s strategy to evolve from just a design tool to a comprehensive product development platform, keeping it competitive against Adobe.

Dylan Field, Figma’s co-founder and CEO, mentioned that with AI reshaping software creation, designing and building products has become everyone’s business. Figma aims to support teams with AI tools that enhance professional designers’ work and developer tools that bridge design and code.

What’s included with Figma AI?

Figma has been integrating AI for a while. In 2023, it incorporated AI into its FigJam whiteboarding tool to help users quickly visualize ideas, suggest best practices, and automate tedious tasks. Figma AI aims to bring similar advantages to product designers, claiming it can elevate their work by automating repetitive tasks while making it easier for non-designers to provide visual feedback and ideas.

Here’s what Figma AI offers:
– Design creation: Users can create mobile and web UI mockups in different styles and layouts using a text prompt.
– Visual search: Users can search through their team’s work using a frame, image, or screenshot to find specific designs or get inspired.
– Name layering: Automatically rename and organize all layers in a file with a single click.
– AI-powered prototyping: Convert static mockups into functional prototypes.
– Automate tedious tasks: Use AI to add realistic text, translate, adjust tone, create images, remove backgrounds, and more.

The visual search feature stands out as it helps designers in large teams find creative assets through specific images or screenshots, reducing bottlenecks when a designer isn’t available to locate a mockup. This search tool functions similarly to Google Lens or Pinterest Lens, identifying visually similar designs in all accessible team files. This feature will also expand to include files and assets from the Figma community with proper attribution.

While in beta, Figma AI is free, but this will change upon general release. The AI search features will be available to Pro, Organization, and Enterprise subscribers. Team administrators must enable access before anyone can use Figma AI.

Figma Faces AI Challenges

Figma AI comes in the wake of Adobe’s recent controversies, where users were concerned about their content being used to train AI models. Adobe responded by altering its Terms of Service, ensuring user content wouldn’t be used to train generative AI tools. Figma’s Terms of Service do not reflect similar concerns, but users will likely be cautious about how their design work might be used.

Kris Rasmussen, Figma’s Chief Technology Officer, clarified that all generative AI features in Figma AI come from third-party models and that no private Figma files or customer data was used in training. Administrators have control over their team’s data and can choose whether to use it for AI training. They can opt-out, with new content and edits excluded from training if they do so after August 15, 2024. Default settings vary by plan, with different opt-in and opt-out configurations.

Figma Slides and Developer Tools

At Figma’s Config 2024 conference, the company also introduced Figma Slides, a competitor to Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint, and new developer tools. Figma Slides helps designers and teams create interactive presentations, leveraging Figma designs and AI to craft the right narrative and ensure the presentation encourages two-way conversations. This feature is in open beta and will become a paid feature after the general release. The AI features in Figma Slides require administrator enablement, and users need a Figma Design license to access the design mode.

For developers, Figma introduced “Ready for Dev,” which provides improved design statuses and notifications, and “Code Connect,” displaying code from design systems or supported UI Kits instead of auto-generated code. Both tools are now generally available, enhancing collaboration between designers and developers.