Figma AI is going to change your design job applications

And it starts with your design portfolios.

Barely more than a week has gone by since Figma’s first APAC conference took place, and the post-adrenaline is still kicking in.

For many Asians and people living halfway around the globe, having the leader of digital design come closer to us have been delightful. I was no exception, because despite repeating the same product releases in Config 2024, the key points only reinforces what I knew about a week before.

Here are the three big announcements in a few words: UI redesign, Figma AI, and Figma Slides (or Flides). Compared to last year’s release of the Dev Mode, which I had written about before, this year’s release was more tactical and expected.

So comes the end game for UI.

Obviously, every tech company has jumped on the AI bandwagon since emergence of LLM in late 2022, so at what point would Figma participate in those conversations? It turns out that Figma did deliver on those expectations, and they had went big with AI in this year’s release.

4 big AI features were announced in Config24

1. Make designs: giving users the superpower to generate mockups based on a few sentences as a prompt.
2. Rename layers: Figma AI would also rename the garbled names of your layers (e.g., Rectangle 459, Group 372).
3. Make prototype: rather than linking various mundane paths manually, Figma AI connects all logical paths with a click.
4. Replace content: Figma AI intelligently fills up placeholder texts with relevant microcopies.

And there were many nifty features, like a visual search for icons, screens, UI kits, and removing backgrounds. The typical sort of AI functions that we see nowadays.

So how do people feel about Figma AI?

Lunch during the conference and chats with fellow designers confirmed one thing. Figma AI is actually useful, especially when you need to find what you need to get started. The satisfying cheers could still be heard in my head when renaming layers were shared, almost like Figma knew exactly where the pain was for the designers.

Many design agencies with small teams also embraced the situation where there just ain’t enough hands to produce stellar output, so if Figma AI comes in not to be “artificially intelligent," but to “augment imagination”, then these designers that I talk to will embrace this change.

What about me? What were my reactions to Figma AI?

Perhaps I represent the other half of the designers who may have felt that a part of the design ritual was fading away. The joy and pain of creating those interfaces meticulously, like a woodcarver chipping away from wooden blocks, seems to no longer matter. Gone may be the days where meandering could lead to serendipitous interactions because speed is the game, and the customer is a hungry beast.

What terrifies me, however, is not my situation, but many others who aspire to be designers, particularly those who have switched careers, paid for courses, or invested time to learn their craft. Within days, does the act of learning how to create flows, screens, and UI components evaporate because a prompt creates an entire screen with variations to choose from?

Then another thought came to mind.

What will hiring be like when Figma AI becomes widespread?

How would I, as a designer, show my credibility to my manager? And if I am a manager, how will I now evaluate a new designer to join my team?

Thus, the rules of applying for a design job or hiring a designer will require a rethink in this new world of Figma AI.

Because, designers no longer need to carry the label of pixel pushers but now need to place a different value on the table.

Likewise, design managers no longer need to hold on to traditional views of design expertise but now need to identify other forms of excellence when selecting the right team member.

For most designers, the entry point is the design portfolio. It is a consolidated representation of who you are, what you do and how you think as a designer. They may be a very small part of the hiring process, but they are a critical artefact for future employers, especially design managers, to determine whether a designer is worth selecting for interviews.

I recall a time when I would look through a hundred portfolios and their CVs to hire one designer. Like many design managers who have a hundred other things to do, it was a gruelling exercise because skimming each portfolio was done with specific details we look out for. The layout of the case study. The comparison of aesthetics across the projects. The rationale behind creating one prototyping path over the other. The overall delivery of the design, from planning to execution. Suddenly, all of that became irrelevant due to Figma AI.

So how should a designer start?

Though not exhaustive, expect to make some changes to the design portfolio if you want to stand out in design job applications. Needless to say, some of them acted as reminders even before Figma AI existed.

Read on: The original version of this article is on UX Collective with 4 tips to improve your design portfolio.

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