Figma’s latest survey shows AI is not yet living up to its over-hyped promise

• Figma releases wide-ranging AI survey
• Adoption and roll-out increasing for design and development
• But users still think it’s not as useful as it could be

As artificial intelligence continues its path to world domination, Figma has unveiled a new survey that seeks to explore how designers and developers are deploying AI tools in the field.

The findings are a bit of a mixed bag, showing that while AI is becoming an integral part of the workflow, it’s not always living up to the promise.

The survey follows on from news that Figma, alongside Adobe and Canva, has integrated OpenAI’s ‘gpt-image-1’ model into its design platform.

What users really think about AI

85%. That’s the headline figure from the survey, which states “85% of respondents say AI will be essential to future success in their role.” But how that success is achieved, or what it even looks like, remains unclear right now.

The company has explored how businesses are building AI-powered products for the market, as well as uncovering how design and dev teams are using the tools in day-to-day workflows. Either way, the results show that despite embracing the technology, right now it’s failing to live up to frankly over-hyped expectations.

According to Figma, one in three say they’ve shipped AI-powered products - a 50% increase since last year’s survey. This includes a wide range of uses, including analytics, document interpretation, and product strategy and marketing growth.

However, designers and developers admitted that “many AI projects still lack clarity in purpose,” with Figma pointing to nebulously defined goals like AI experimentation and CX improvements offered by respondents. This, the company claims, makes it difficult to measure the true impact of artificial intelligence.

The gulf between reality and potential can also be seen in how designers and developers are using AI. Because, while 78% believe the use of AI makes their workflows more efficient, just 58% reckon it improves the quality of the work. Fewer than half of those surveyed, says Figma, “made them better at their job.”

Figma also notes that despite 83% of those surveyed think learning to work with AI is essential to future success, those who believe it will have a “significant impact” on reaching company goals plummets to only 27%. Users who say AI will be “transformational” linger at 15%, exactly where it was in last year’s survey.

In other words, the company says, belief in the potential is high, but expectations, while stabilizing, are low due to experiencing the true limitations of current artificial intelligence technology.

Despite the general scepticism over just how useful AI is right now, there is some optimism in the design and dev world. Agentic AI is now the fastest-growing category, doubling year on year - although it’s yet to unseat text generation as the biggest project type.

Usage is also increasing, particularly among developers. Where just 69% of designers say they’re satisfied with AI tools and 54% of them feel the quality of their work improves when using AI, these figures jump to 83% and 67% for those working in development.

However, Figma points out that the disparity is likely down to how artificial intelligence is used across different projects, with designers chiefly using the tools for the likes of asset creation (31%) compared to core development responsibilities, such as code generation, used by 59% of developers.

So, all in all, results are mixed right now - how that will change as AI continues to improve will be one to watch.

Figma surveyed 2500 developers and designers globally between January 8 and January 30, 2025. You can get the full report here.

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