Comment by reactordev
6 days ago
They’re adopting AI so that designers within figma can create. I don’t know whether this is good or bad (I don’t design) but if the tool everyone uses to mock things up gains coding abilities, we’re cooked.
You’ll be able to go from figma to production in weeks.
And we'll have 10x of the Tea app incidents.
AI tools are still just that tools - they're not abstraction layers from "intent" to "production product".
There's also code snippets so that developers can provide the HTML or React or whatever code to implement a component or set thereof. And that stuff feeds into an MCP server, so that in theory an AI / code assistant can implement a design in whichever framework you build in, but within some limits if you provide the right code.
It won't just be figma. The market is already filling up with lots of players in this space.
There may be no moats. Just distribution winners.
Never underestimate the power of market share. Adobe has had a bunch of competitors but still dominates design.
Speaking of Adobe!
Adobe is going to get absolutely trounced by GenAI. They've got so many competitors coming at them from all angles.
Also, innovation capital (engineers at startups) experience outsized rewards at startups when disruption happens. The better engineers will flock to more nimble outfits and reap the benefits.
Adobe is a dinosaur.
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adobe moat is complex desktop software
Figma is a whole lot easier to replace actually you can now actually with a self host OSS that came up with and bring your own api key from antrophic or open ai
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> It won't just be figma. The market is already filling up with lots of players in this space.
MongoDB wants a word.. another "this will never amount to anything" HN special.
It'll depend on other vendors to make the models who will eat up all the margins
"but if the tool everyone uses to mock things up gains coding abilities"
adobe tried this 10 years ago (Adobe dream weaver) and failed
I literally can drag and drop design photos from drawing board to claude or open ai chat and they recreate it themselves instead of needing figma
not sure where you know that "we are cooked" its for them not us
Figma is what all the designers are using. If they turn that into a Claude for design and add the ability to complete the wireframes with AI generated code. There’s no need for engineers until after acquisition. Just maintenance.
The difference here is - Adobe tried using a proprietary stack. Figma can spit React. Everyone knows React - even if you use something else. It’s perfect timing with AI coding agents and every, single, UX team using it.
"Figma is what all the designers are using. If they turn that into a Claude for design and add the ability to complete the wireframes with AI generated code"
You can literally do this NOW without needing figma
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