The Big Lesson Behind Figma AI

Designers are on the frontlines of something every software worker will soon be going through. It’s a question you should be asking yourself:

Are my tools training an AI replacement with my data?

It feels like we’re at the same moment in history as when factory jobs became automated, except now it’s happening in software.

Last week, Figma made some big AI announcements that caused quite a controversy.

Welcome to the dystopian world of design called:

Figma's Big Announcement

This year, AI was all over the Config conference with much-needed updates like background removal, AI-generated layer naming, and automated prototyping.

There were also some AI features to help you "get started" and avoid that "blank-page feeling." Which is marketing-speak for we'll use AI to do most of the design for you.

The big release was "Make Design," a generative UI feature.

Imagine being able to generate interfaces from text prompts. Sure, a few AI tools like Uizard have already done something similar, but from the website demo, it seems like Figma nailed it.

When they announced the feature at Figma Config, quite a few eyebrows were raised, and I heard the chat for the online event got so out of hand that they disabled it.

This feature might be a design job killer.

Figma skills were never going to get you promoted, and now everyone on the team can use Figma to generate mediocre UI.

Who needs a designer if you can generate any design you want? You know that product managers gotta be seeing this feature + your design system = no need for a designer.

What struck me is that these AI-powered starting points will turn all UI designers into "UI editors."

Welcome to the dystopian tech world where software turns against you and uses your data to replace you.

Is this the new product lifecycle in tech?

1. Create a tool for a specific niche user
2. Gather data on how they use the tool
3. Use AI to turn the tool into a prompt-based tool
4. Sell the prompt-based tool to everyone at 1/100th the price of the user
5. Swim in cash while the original user looks for a new job

Why Figma quietly turned off the "Make Design" feature

So, what happened?

All the UI designers realized that their jobs were threatened, and rather than accept it, designers decided to try a little collective action. They boycotted the tool, and Figma removed it!

LOL, you should see your face. No, that's not what happened.

No, they turned off the feature because Figma didn't want to get sued by Apple.

After the conference, users reported that the Make Design feature was blatantly plagiarizing. Andy Allen, founder of NotBoringSoftware, accused Figma of stealing Apple's weather app design.

Take a look and judge for yourself:

The CEO of Figma responded by saying they would disable the Make Design feature until they could fix it.

What you should do about Figma AI

So what's the big lesson?

AI features like Figma’s Make Design are useless without your data.

The weather app looks the same because Figma has yet to add all your data to its model.

Luckily, it's not too late to opt out.

If you refuse to train Figma's AI model with your data, you might delay the inevitable job loss this feature will create.

Here's what the opt-out option looks like in your admin settings:

I encourage you to consider opting out.

Maybe these AI fears are overblown, and there is nothing to worry about. I hope so.

Companies are extremely slow to adopt new tools, as anyone who has worked in a large organization knows. However, the promise of AI efficiency is too tempting for managers. If your boss is faced with a $15/month subscription or a $60,000/year designer, which one do you think they will choose?

It’s a good idea to start growing and selling your skills outside your main tool in case it tries to replace you.

Some AI-proof skills in the era of generative AI:

• Storytelling - learn to present and make your ideas persuasive
• Facilitating - learn to use the collective intelligence of the room in collaborative workshops (check out this course)
• Research - learn to gather data to glean insights (pairs well with AI tools)
• Analysis - learn to break up data to glean insights (pairs well with AI tools)
• Strategy - learn to deal with future uncertainty at a high level (check out this course)
• Prototyping - improve ideas by demoing lo-fi early versions (pairs well with AI tools)
• Testing - find out if your ideas have value with real-world experiments (check out this course)
• Client management - learn to ship features while keeping your customers happy
• Stakeholder management - learn to ship features while keeping your colleagues happy

-Jeff Humble

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This article was originally published on Jeff's blog. Read the full version here