- Figma releases a large -scale AI study
- Adoption and deployment increasing for design and development
- But users always think that it is not as useful as possible
While artificial intelligence is continuing its way to world domination, Figma has unveiled a new survey that seeks to explore how designers and developers deploy AI tools in the field.
The results are a bit of a mixed bag, showing that if AI is an integral part of the workflow, it is not always suitable for the promise.
The investigation follows the news that Figma, alongside Adobe and Canva, joined the “ GPT-Image-1 ” model in its design platform.
What users really think of AI
85%. This is the figure of the head of the survey, which stipulates that “85% of respondents say that AI will be essential to future success in their role”. But the way this success is obtained, or what it even looks like, remains uncertain at the moment.
The company has explored how companies create products powered by AI for the market, as well as to discover how design and development teams use tools in daily work flows. Be that as it may, the results show that despite the adoption of technology, at the moment, it cannot be up to the frankly overhanged expectations.
According to Figma, one in three says it has sent products powered by AI – an increase of 50% since last year’s survey. This includes a wide range of uses, including analysis, interpretation of documents and product strategy and marketing growth.
However, designers and developers have admitted that “many AI projects are not lacking in clarity in the objective”, Figma pointing to nebulously defined objectives such as the IA experiment and the CX improvements offered by the respondents. This, according to society, makes it difficult to measure the real impact of artificial intelligence.
The gulf between reality and potential can also be seen in the way designers and developers use AI. Because, although 78% think that using AI makes their workflows more effective, only 58% believe that this improves the quality of work. Less than half of those questioned, explains Figma, “improved them in their work”.
The FIFMA also notes that despite 83% of those questioned think that learning to work with AI is essential to future success, those who think that it will have a “significant impact” on the achievement of the company’s objectives only fall by 27%. Users who say that AI will be “transformational” persists at 15%, exactly where it was in last year’s survey.
In other words, says the company, belief in potential is high, but expectations, while stabilizing, are low due to the experience of the real limits of current artificial intelligence technology.
Despite the general skepticism to know how useful AI is at the moment, there is a certain optimism in the world of design and development. The agentic AI is now the fastest category, doubling from year to year – although it is not yet to dislodge the generation of text as the largest type of project.
Use also increases, especially in developers. When only 69% of designers say they are satisfied with AI tools and 54% of them believe that the quality of their work improves when using AI, these figures increase to 83% and 67% for those working in development.
However, Figma stresses that the disparity is probably due to the way in which artificial intelligence is used in different projects, designers mainly using the tools for the creation of assets (31%) compared to basic development responsibilities, such as code generation, used by 59% of developers.
So, overall, the results are mixed at the moment – how it will change while AI continues to improve will be monitored.
Figma questioned 2,500 developers and designers worldwide between January 8 and January 30, 2025. You can get the full report here.
