Figma Is No Longer Just for Designers

By all outward appearances, Figma is no longer just a design tool. At this year’s Config conference in San Francisco, CEO Dylan Field took the stage at the Moscone Center and introduced four new products: Figma Make, an AI-powered prototyping tool; Figma Sites, a website creation and hosting platform; Figma Buzz, an asset generator for marketing teams; and Figma Draw, a vector illustration editor. Each addresses a different phase of digital product development. Collectively, they suggest Figma is building an end-to-end workflow suite for everyone involved in making software.

It’s an expansion that tracks with the company’s trajectory since its $20 billion acquisition by Adobe was blocked in 2022. Left to chart its own course, Figma has filed for an IPO and is growing beyond its single-product roots. For a company once admired for its focus, branching out now feels more like a necessity than a shift in strategy.

Figma’s renewed approach to AI arrives on the heels of a difficult chapter. Last year, the company introduced a feature called “Make Designs” that drew criticism for producing results strikingly similar to existing apps, most notably, a weather app nearly identical to Apple’s. Questions about how the models were trained led to the feature being pulled.

Reintroducing AI

The products announced this year reflect a markedly different posture. Figma Make now allows users to prompt generative models such as Claude Sonnet 3.7 to generate interactive prototypes and editable code. Figma Sites lets users design and publish web pages without leaving the platform. Buzz is a tool for generating on-brand marketing materials using AI. Draw, unlike the others, is centered on manual illustration, offering new features like brushes, vector editing, and texture controls.

This time, Figma is being more explicit about its limitations. “You cannot necessarily predict from these models what they’ll put out,” Field said in an interview. “That doesn’t mean it’s not beneficial to the user.” He emphasized that attribution is built in where possible—for instance, when a design originates from the Figma community but acknowledged that model behavior can’t always be accounted for. “There’s only so far we can go here.”

Rather than promising AI that replaces creative labor, the company is positioning these tools as optional layers that fit into existing workflows. A study commissioned by Figma showed that while only 31% of designers currently use AI for core tasks, most developers have already embraced it. The disparity suggests a more cautious integration is likely to be better received especially among Figma’s design-first audience.

Designing Around User Behavior

Figma’s latest products are drawn from how users were already stretching the original tool. Field recalled how, during the pandemic, teams used Figma not just for UI design but for brainstorming, whiteboarding, and presentations. That led to the creation of FigJam and Slides. Figma Sites follows the same model. Many designers were already mocking up websites in Figma, then coding them separately. The new tool collapses that handoff and allows teams to publish sites directly.

“We talk a lot about the process of going from idea to product,” Field said. “Make spans that whole process.” Sites includes responsive design features, animations, scroll effects, and a built-in CMS for blog content. Designers can assign a custom domain and deploy with a click with no separate host required.

Importantly, Field drew a line between Figma Sites and mainstream site builders like Wix or Squarespace. Those tools, he argued, are aimed at individual creators and small businesses. Figma Sites is meant for design and marketing teams working within larger organizations.

The same distinction applies to Buzz. Though its functionality overlaps with Canva and Adobe Express, Figma is positioning it for brand and product teams. Templates can be created in Figma Design, handed off to marketers, and reused to generate bulk assets—all while staying within brand guidelines. A mobile app isn’t in the works. “We’re focused on making sure Buzz is really high quality for what we’re trying to do on the web,” Field said.

Familiar Tools, New Contexts

Despite Field’s insistence that Figma isn’t chasing competition, the comparisons are unavoidable. Make echoes GitHub Copilot and other AI developer assistants. Sites operates in the same space as Webflow and WordPress. Buzz overlaps with Canva, and Draw invites comparisons to Illustrator. But Field maintains that the unifying principle is helping users go from an idea to something usable.

To support that vision, Figma is launching a new “content seat” at $8 per month, giving users access to Buzz, Slides, FigJam, and Sites CMS. The tier is designed for companies already using Figma across functions. Even if the individual tools mirror external platforms, their integration into existing workflows could make them more appealing than switching.

Product Expansion, IPO Pressure

Figma’s product growth comes ahead of a pivotal financial moment. Since its last disclosed revenue figure in 2022, $400 million with 90% gross margins and the company hasn’t shared new financials. That will change as part of the IPO process. But the expansion into new product lines is clearly aimed at driving growth and increasing monetization, particularly from the 85% of users outside the U.S. and the two-thirds who are not designers.

Whether these new tools gain traction remains to be seen. Figma is offering AI assistance, but also reinforcing the value of traditional creativity. Field sees a risk in the increasing sameness of AI-generated content. “As some organizations lean too heavily on AI,” he said, “we’re going to see more and more bland, look-alike products.”

That’s where Draw fits in. It isn’t automated and doesn’t lean on prompts. Instead, it reflects what Field calls “the differentiator”—human craft. “We have a lot of opportunity to build tools for folks [to] be more divergent and have more craft and stand out,” he said.