- Figma releases a wide range of scope
- Adoption and deployment increasing for design and development
- But users still think it is not as useful as it could be
As artificial intelligence continues its path to world domination, Figma has presented a new survey that seeks to explore how designers and developers implement AI tools in the field.
The findings are a bit mixed, which shows that although AI is becoming an integral part of the workflow, it is not always up to the promise.
The survey is deduced from the news that Figma, together with Adobe and Canva, has integrated the OpenAi ‘GPT-IMAGE-1 model in its design platform.
What users really think about AI
85%. That is the main figure of the survey, which states that “85% of respondents say that AI will be essential for future success in their role.” But how that success is achieved, or how it looks, it still does not be clear at this time.
The company has explored how companies are building products with AI for the market, as well as discovering how design and development equipment are using tools in daily workflows. Anyway, the results show that despite adopting technology, at this time it is not up to the frankly survived expectations.
According to Figma, one in three says they have sent products with AI, an increase of 50% since last year’s survey. This includes a wide range of uses, including analysis, interpretation of documents and marketing products and growth strategy.
However, designers and developers admitted that “many projects still lack clarity in the purpose”, with Figma that point to objectives nebulously defined such as the experimentation of AI and the improvements of CX offered by respondents. This, says the company, makes it difficult to measure the true impact of artificial intelligence.
The abyss between reality and potential can also be seen in how designers and developers are using AI. Because, while 78% believe that the use of AI makes their workflows more efficient, only 58% believe it improves the quality of work. Less than half of the respondents, says Figma, “made them better in their work.”
Figma also points out that despite 83% of respondents think that learning to work with AI is essential for future success, those who believe they will have a “significant impact” on achieving the company’s objectives in a shock of only 27%. Users who say the AI will be “transformer” will remain at 15%, exactly where it was in the survey last year.
In other words, says the company, the belief in the potential is high, but the expectations, while stabilizing, are low due to experiencing the true limitations of current artificial intelligence technology.
Despite general skepticism about how useful AI is at this time, there is some optimism in the design and the world of development. Agentic AI is now the fastest growing category, doubleing year after year, although it has not yet unleashed text generation as the largest type of project.
Use is also increasing, particularly among developers. When only 69% of designers say they are satisfied with AI tools and 54% of them feel that the quality of their work improves when used, these figures increase to 83% and 67% for those who work in development.
However, Figma points out that disparity is probably due to how artificial intelligence is used in different projects, and designers mainly use the tools for the creation of assets (31%) compared to central development responsibilities, such as the generation of code, used by 59% of developers.
Then, in general, the results are mixed at this time: how that will change as AI continues to improve will be one to see.
Figma surveyed 2500 developers and designers worldwide between January 8 and 30, 2025. You can get the full report here.
