Is Figma dead? – There is legitimately no reason to use Figma anymore
Or are the designers dead?
You probably saw this post about a month ago.
“There is legitimately no reason to use Figma anymore.1”
I drafted a response but wasn’t sure where I wanted to stand.
I could put myself in others' shoes and critique this guy’s website, but am I missing the point that tools and jobs are being disrupted?
There are different layers to this discussion.
If it's about Figma, learning a tool isn’t the same as learning design. Tools come and go. Fifteen years ago, I was designing in Photoshop. I still remember how painful it was to create pixel-perfect designs since you couldn’t just hold the Option key to check the distance between objects. I don’t even want to remember, for million times I exported the final design into jpegs and sent them to devs.
Then came Sketch, a tool made specifically for UI design. Eventually, years later, I moved to Figma, and I’m still using it today. I remember switching because Sketch was Mac-exclusive, design work felt siloed, and collaboration was a hassle. Sharing files meant exporting, uploading somewhere, and dealing with one-source-of-truth headaches (remember Abstract?2 or Zeplin3). But Figma broke the barriers. Devs could jump in, comment, inspect, and to me, it’s basically a no-handoff handoff.
Again, it’s not about tool. I’ve seen skilled designers like Dann Petty4, MDS5, and Soh Tanaka6 nail their work using Photoshop, even Illustrator, back in the day.
But the deeper, more sensitive layer, is the existential question of being a designer. If someone can bypass the process and jump straight into V0, Loveable, Bolt, or whatever—where do we, as designers, fit in?
Maybe the real question isn’t just “Is Figma dead?”
but also “Are the designers dead?”
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AI blurs the lines
People are rethinking how to build companies leaner than ever7. One person can take on multiple roles, vibing with AI8, just prompt and watch—or automate tedious tasks.
Even the most thought-provoking move relies on one person as the conductor of AI agents9. Although that won’t be a one-size-fits-all scenario. Some companies will try, some will succeed, while others will fail and return to the traditional way, or combine it. Just like remote, office, and hybrid work.
I think the idea of blurred lines isn’t new, especially between designers and PMs. The more senior you get, the more you understand both the business and the users, and the more you’ll find yourself overlapping with PMs’ work.
You’ve probably heard of the so-called unicorn designer, someone who can design and code. But to me, it’s not just about coding. It could be video, photography, 3D, graphics, or audio—any skill that enriches your design work. And now, AI can assist with all of these. This not only helps overcome creative limitations but also makes you more resourceful. In that sense, AI isn’t just a tool; it raises the ceiling, expanding what’s possible beyond your own capabilities.
So, designers aren’t dead—if they adapt and harness AI to amplify their creativity.
“AI raises the ceiling and lowers the floor”
Figma’s VP of Design said this when he introduced AI on the Figma Config stage for the first time in 2023.10
Talking about the raising the ceiling and lowering the floor is about creating balance in the room, not just democratizing skills, but also pushing beyond for those who already have them.
However, the fact is that people with lower skills or at the junior level benefit more than those at the senior level. Ethan Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School, conducted an experiment with Boston Consulting Group11. The consultants who scored the lowest at the start of the experiment saw the biggest improvement in their performance 43%, when they used AI. The top consultants also saw a boost, but a smaller one at 17%.
In another research report, researchers working with Microsoft, Accenture, and an anonymous Fortune 100 electronics manufacturing company found that recent hires and junior developers increased their output by 27% to 39% using an AI-based coding assistant. The more senior developers saw productivity gains of 8% to 13%.12
As of today, I haven’t found any specific research on product, UX, or UI design fields. If you come across one, please let me know!
Since I couldn’t find the reason behind these insights, I’d guess that AI has a higher relative effect on junior-level professionals because they have more room to grow. Meanwhile, senior professionals rely on deeper expertise, tacit knowledge, and nuanced understanding—things AI can’t fully replicate.
So, designers aren’t dead—as long as they nurture the skills AI can’t replicate.
Design as a verb
Let’s take a lens of etymology together.
The word "design" comes from the Latin verb "designare," which means "to mark out, plan, or choose." Over time, this influenced the Italian "disegnare" and later the French words for both a "plan or project" (noun) and "to sketch or plan" (verb).
By the late Middle Ages, English adopted both meanings: as a verb (to plan, outline, or create something) and as a noun (a plan, drawing, or pattern). During the Renaissance, "design" grew beyond just marking things out, it became a way to describe both artistic creation and practical planning.13
My hypothesis was that, with Gen AI democratizing design skills, people would likely be more embracing of design as a noun. Alas, design as a noun has been far more popular in books throughout the centuries.
Design as a verb is a process of researching, framing problems, ideating, prototyping, and iterating. It becomes more profound when you see it as more than just a series of steps. It’s about the how and why behind them. The approach, the reasoning behind each decision, and your attitude.
As a noun, design is the output. The focus is on the artifacts.
The truth is, focusing on the verb elevates the quality of the noun.
Take this as an example:
Two designers are working separately on the same project.
One spends time observing users, analyzing competitors, gathering inspiration, and doing the groundwork, either before designing or in parallel.
The other jumps straight into Figma, creating rectangles, adding text, images, and avatars.
Which one is more likely to nail the job?
In the coming years, AI will get better and better at generating screens, but can it synthesize the discovery, make sense of all the pieces, and create meaning in the final product?
So, designers aren’t dead—if they uphold design more as a verb than a mere noun.
Designers aren’t dead
With Gen AI taking off and everyone racing toward AI systems with human-like abilities (read: AGI).
I think, It’s time to…
Adapt and harness AI to amplify our creativity.
Nurture the skills that AI can’t replicate.
Uphold design more as a verb than a mere noun.
Rethink the belief that building certain layouts, interactions, animations is laborious. It’s probably not anymore.
Revisit work that once fell into the high-effort, high-impact quadrant, even those dismissed as mere cosmetics, because what was once high effort is now much easier.
Go beyond just exploring visual static screens and uploading them online. Take on a product challenge in a problem space you’re passionate about. Build it.
See it as a chance to learn something new, even if it’s just vibe coding, editing on the fly without fully knowing every syntax, just to make a working prototype.
Make the internet beautiful and colorful again, like back in the days when creativity was championed over strict usability. Don’t get me wrong, usability is great, but I worry that the future will bring more of the same all-white designs. Maybe now’s the time to bring the juice back?
Learn a broad range of skills while going deep in one (T-shaped skills). That’s likely the direction most people will echo moving forward. You have a mix of skills to solve problems and create meaning with your hands.
Be more responsible and always bring ethics into the process.
Last but not least, let’s circle back to the question: Is Figma dead?
I imagine Figma is in a tough spot. Last year, they faced pushback after releasing AI features, and they haven’t made big moves in AI while the competition is now asymmetrical.
My best bet? Figma could be a powerhouse for both design and development, bringing them even closer under one roof. One source of truth for both, closing the gap.
I hope you enjoy my ramblings this week.
Until next one,
Thomas
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Filling the tech stack graveyard is the first symptom of overreacting
Nothing is dead
Everything evolves at each core
This hits hard. “Design as a verb” is a lovely concept and I think it teases an expansive and dynamic definition of what a designer can do. I do agree we should enable and encourage that.
I’d be curious to see how design roles changes within different settings, from tech to advertising to cpg. I suspect we’ll see more unicorn designers that can do literally everything but with the help of AI.. and less of expert designers niched into one thing. Although, there will always be experts, I’m just not sure they’ll be revered the same.