Figma launches redesigned platform, AI-powered features

Photo credit: Figma

AI is the undisputed theme for global tech giants this year, and the same applies to Figma. At Figma Config 2024 this week, the company launched new AI features for its collaborative design software, including generators for unique images, interactive prototypes, as well as web and mobile mockups.

Currently in beta, Figma AI is free with usage limits. The company has also launched several other products, including presentation creator Figma Slides, along with redesigned interfaces, including for developers.

The new offerings come after a tumultuous 12 months for the design software firm. After a much-heralded US$20 billion acquisition by Adobe collapsed, Figma announced a tender offer last month, valuing the company at US$12.5 billion while allowing investors as well as employees to cash out.

Yuhki Yamashita, Figma’s chief product officer, tells Tech in Asia that AI has made it easier for everyone to participate in the design process. While that is true for any design company, Figma’s approach is to use AI to stretch the boundaries.

“How do we lower the floor so we bring more people into the process of designing? And then, of course, how do we take the design experts that we have [and] empower them with more?” Yamashita says.

Moving up the stack

The product chief points out that many people have “creative superpowers” that they could not tap into, since they don’t necessarily have the required design skills. Figma AI addresses this partly through a text-based design generator, which will provide a first design draft at an instant.

On the other hand, many design experts also have a lot of repetitive, manual tasks that take time and effort. In response, Figma’s new platform has AI-enhanced search tools for visuals – letting users find visually similar designs from a team’s files – as well as for assets like button designs.

See also: How Figma’s product chief builds magical products

“People are going to move up the stack, which is the technical way of saying work at higher and higher altitudes,” Yamashita says. “Now, people are no longer focused on these little details and can actually think about bigger problems, because all this other stuff is taken care of.”

At the same time, AI is in “really early innings,” and over time, what people will realize is that they want a much more integrated experience. Central to this concept is interfaces, where users can experience AI in a more “native and natural and integrated way,” the exec adds.

Another investment area for Figma is in the developers that use its product. As many as a third of Figma’s weekly active users are developers, Yamashita shares, and the company has been focused on making their experience “great.”

Figma CPO Yuhki Yamashita / Photo credit: Figma