00:06hey there my FL designers and crors hope
00:07you're all doing well welcome back to a
00:09brand new video on the channel a lot of
00:12you have been waiting for this video and
00:14all of you have been asking me what are
00:16my thoughts on everything that was
00:17launched in config 2024 figma AI there's
00:20a lot to talk about uh there's a lot to
00:23cover actually so without any further
00:25Ado let's get started now what I'm
00:27basically going to do in the video is
00:29give you some overall context of figma
00:32AI and what's happening I'm not going to
00:34be explaining how to do the feature or
00:36do a recap there are tons of videos
00:38already on the internet that's basically
00:40explaining the same thing all over again
00:41and again about what an all AI can do
00:44I'm going to be giving context in a
00:45little bit of a different way we're also
00:48going to go look at five major impacts
00:50that this has on the future of the
00:52product design industry and what this
00:54means for junior designers and middle-
00:55level designers um then I'm going to be
00:57talking about what are the skills you
00:59need to start focusing on now that AI
01:01has come into the picture and finally um
01:04I'm going to talk about what could be
01:05the future of figma AI and I think this
01:08is something that's really important to
01:10watch so if you don't want to watch the
01:11full video at least watch the last part
01:13of it I'm going to leave time stamps so
01:15that you can jump to this part if you
01:16are interested and it's important to
01:19understand what the future looks like
01:20because if you can figure that out then
01:23we will know what are the appropriate
01:24steps that we have to take so this is
01:26how the video is going to be split and
01:28uh let's get started
01:30now I'm so happy that people have
01:32already started talking about this on
01:34social media of course all of this is at
01:36a very high level and I'm going to dive
01:37into much more details things that
01:40people have not really spoken about on
01:42social media this has a much bigger
01:44impact than this so I'm going to get
01:46into all of that now I'm going to start
01:48off the video with this comment that I
01:49got which uh where this person is
01:51basically saying figma AI is not that
01:53good the kinds of designs it generates I
01:55believe anyone who practices designs for
01:57a couple of weeks can make those AI
02:00now there are two parts to this I'm
02:01going to talk about the first part now
02:03of course figma AI is not that good it's
02:06not even out of beta it's the first
02:08version and it's okay right and it's
02:11something that is a little better than
02:13what I expected all the other a gen AI
02:16tools that we've seen out there which
02:17can produce screens they haven't really
02:19done a good job at all figma AI is
02:22pretty decent and the demo looks okay
02:25right and this part is true but the
02:27second part which is about the kind of
02:29design it generates I believe anyone who
02:31practices designs for a couple of weeks
02:33can make those AI designs this is
02:35something that I fully don't agree with
02:37there are people with a lot of years of
02:39experience and maybe not even a lot of
02:41years of experience somebody who's been
02:42in the industry for one one and a half
02:43year who still designs really poor
02:46looking screens who basically have no
02:48grasp of their fundamentals who do not
02:51understand visual hierarchy don't know
02:52how to use colors and typography right
02:54so I wouldn't say anybody who just
02:56practice it for a couple of weeks
02:57practicing UI design and constructing
02:59something really really good cannot be
03:01done within a couple of weeks there are
03:02people who have even after being having
03:04one or two internships and you know
03:06working in the industry for a year do
03:08not know how to produce good-look
03:09screens right so this is something that
03:12I completely disagree with but it's a
03:14very fair comment overall now when Auto
03:16layout was introduced many years ago by
03:18figma it took while for people to start
03:21adopting it and before Auto layout
03:23nobody really cared about how screens
03:24were constructed nobody cared about UI
03:26design that much and after Auto was
03:28introduced people started start taking
03:30this seriously it's something that every
03:32designer had to know because it was
03:34helpful in understanding how to
03:36construct a screen the right way because
03:38that's how Engineers construct it in
03:40code as well right so Auto out brought
03:42in a lot of parity for engineers and
03:44designers and also helped us look at
03:46things like constraints responsiveness
03:49designing for Android versus iOS versus
03:51tablet and a lot of these things came
03:53into picture and this is a message that
03:55I got from somebody on LinkedIn where
03:56this person basically sent me their
03:58assignment and um this person is asking
04:01me what do you think about the motive of
04:02this assignment is it that the person
04:04knows the Mastery of figma Auto layout
04:06right so what I'm trying to say here is
04:08that there are even take-home
04:10assignments where people are testing
04:11these skills where people are are
04:14expected to use Auto layout should know
04:16how to use Auto out right and this only
04:18happened because figma introduced Auto
04:20out as a feature and it's because it was
04:22important for designers to understand
04:24how to construct screens the right way
04:27another example is component properties
04:29when component properties got introduced
04:31it became so easy for designers to build
04:33really good and efficient Design Systems
04:36right instead of making a million
04:37components you can just make few
04:39components or basically few variants for
04:41a single component and you could do a
04:43lot right and this is also how Engineers
04:45do it and so now Design Systems are a
04:47big thing everybody is doing it
04:49everybody is learning it because figma
04:51enabled us to create a good Design
04:53Systems and then they announce variables
04:56this made that gap between designing and
04:59development much more closer right and
05:01now everybody's expected to know how to
05:03use variables it's something that you as
05:05a designer and you specifically as a UI
05:08designer need to know how so what
05:10basically happened here is this Snowball
05:12Effect where over the past few years
05:14this snowball has become bigger and
05:16bigger if you have to say this in the
05:18form of a metaphor you have to keep
05:19running or else you're going to be
05:21consumed by this Snowball right and this
05:23Snowball Effect is only going to become
05:25much bigger with AI That's Coming In
05:27what I want to say is that the impact is
05:29a lot greater than you may think because
05:32nothing is going to change today but the
05:35change is going to start today when Auto
05:38layout was introduced when variables was
05:40introduced when component properties
05:41were introduced nothing changed that day
05:43but the expectations from the industry
05:45started to change the situation is
05:47already bad for a lot of Junior
05:49designers given the market and given how
05:51many people are there and the demand and
05:53a lot of things so whether AI exists or
05:55not the situation is already bad so AI
05:57can only make things worse and when I
06:00say junior designers I'm actually
06:01talking about people who have around
06:03Less Than 3 years of experience right
06:04just because somebody has a title called
06:06senior product designer does not really
06:08make them a senior product designer if
06:10you are to take the industry as a whole
06:12anybody with less than 3 years of
06:13experience is still considered a junior
06:15designer irrespective of what your title
06:17calls you now I want to explain
06:19something in the form of a graph if we
06:21take a bunch of random people right just
06:24handpicked random people and you
06:26evaluate them based on their UI design
06:28skills right right this is sort of how
06:31the chart would look like and as you can
06:33see you've got quite a few highs you've
06:35got around 10 people who seem to be
06:36pretty good at UI design a lot of them
06:39are still learning and then you've got a
06:40few of them who are you know probably
06:42not that great right and of course this
06:43is not from any report or any analysis
06:47or any survey that I've done this is
06:48based on my understanding and I've seen
06:50how the industry has grown over the many
06:52years now if I take UI design and change
06:56that skill set to ux design we see it
06:59drastically false you can see that the
07:01level of proficiency of each of these
07:03people is a lot less in ux design
07:06because they still don't understand
07:08basic interaction patterns what makes a
07:10good user flow what a good user
07:11experience looks like what's the
07:13difference between a good and a bad user
07:14experience people are still figuring
07:16this out and I'm talking about these
07:17Junior designers with less than three
07:19years of experience and if you take
07:21critical thinking and problem solving it
07:23falls even low people don't understand
07:25metrics people don't know how to think
07:27people don't have a proper thought
07:29process right there's probably one
07:31person who's really good at it from this
07:33random lot right so you can see that
07:35most of these people who are designers
07:37lack ux design and critical thinking and
07:39problem solving skills and to reiterate
07:42my point I'm going to share I'm going to
07:43show you this message that I got where
07:44this person shared one of their
07:46assignments that they got from a company
07:48that they were interviewing with and
07:50this person is saying I'm just feeling a
07:51bit overwhelmed and overthinking a lot
07:53about the problem statement because the
07:54last four assignments I submitted I
07:57didn't get through and I didn't get
07:59clear feedback from them so I'm just
08:01like I don't want to get this thing
08:02wrong right so this person has submitted
08:04four assignment and he's come to me with
08:06this fifth assignment for feedback on it
08:08and he hasn't able to take this forward
08:11and this is another proof to show you
08:12that it's getting really hard for junior
08:14designers out there so let's come back
08:15to the slide when I'm talking about UI
08:17design right now this is UI design as a
08:19whole but UI design with figma AI is
08:23going to make the chart look like this
08:26and what does this actually mean what is
08:30I want to explain this with this
08:31illustration right now for those of you
08:32who game a lot play pubg fortnite and a
08:35lot of these games you probably know
08:36what this is this is basically what we
08:38call as a Loot Crate that suddenly drops
08:40in the middle of the game and what this
08:42basically does it has some guns it has
08:44some powerups it's got a couple of
08:46things that gives you a competitive
08:48advantage over other players right what
08:51it's basically doing it's leveling the
08:54playing field so that everybody has an
08:56equal chance of having a fair fight and
08:59AI just level the playing field with
09:01figma AI and what this means is that the
09:03industry's focus is going to change and
09:06I'm going to talk about what that means
09:07in this video and you as a designer you
09:10need to make sure you make the best use
09:12of this opportunity because the playing
09:14field has been leveled for everybody so
09:17with that being said I'm going to start
09:18off with the first of the five impacts
09:21now the first one is about design
09:23agencies and service-based companies and
09:25specifically for designers who are
09:27working there agencies will now need
09:30less designers and why is this let me
09:33explain here's another message that I
09:35got and this is about specifically about
09:37a design agency and I have a specific
09:39video about identifying design driven
09:41companies coming soon but this is a
09:43message that I got and let me read this
09:45up right the design studio I work at
09:47people including the higher management
09:49are aware of the impact design can bring
09:52but the only end up onboarding clients
09:54or companies who think design is only
09:57about Aesthetics and make the designer
09:59work on very tight unrealistic deadlines
10:02which ends up with the average designed
10:04product right most of the clients of the
10:06company on boards it either half
10:09develops the product or doesn't develop
10:11at all and this is because of failed
10:12design and development feasibility we
10:15are aware but helpless due to designing
10:17in isolation and lack of interaction
10:19with the development team also designers
10:22here aren't aware about scalability
10:24while designing any product management
10:26is also not bothered to teach this to
10:28the designers luckily I came across a
10:30channel I learned a lot of these things
10:32which most designers in our company are
10:34not even aware of and another funny
10:36thing is designers here think building
10:38components and style guide is equal to a
10:40design system so this message clearly
10:43summarizes a lot of things it summarizes
10:46a lot of problems over here and figma AI
10:49is very much capable of generating
10:52designs that a designer in such a design
10:54agency is able to generate right and as
10:57you can see clients only think about
10:59Aesthetics and they only want things to
11:02be done within tight deadlines right so
11:04what this basically means is that design
11:07agencies can save costs and they can
11:09accept more projects if they have less
11:12designers who use Ai and most of these
11:15companies have two types of people
11:17you've got UI designers and you've got
11:19ux designers and I this is something
11:21that is very different from how product
11:23based companies work in product based
11:24companies you have Complete product
11:26designers who do everything end to end
11:28but in agencies for for some weird
11:30reason they have separate ux and
11:31separate UI which absolutely makes no
11:33sense to me but anyway this is how they
11:35work now what's going to happen here is
11:39that AI is going to make it for these ux
11:41designers who don't really design
11:43screens to start doing UI designs right
11:46AI is going to do a lot of the heavy
11:48lifting for these ux designers and these
11:50ux designers can do the ux part and also
11:53the UI part as well and this is one of
11:55the features that was released right
11:56suggest Auto layout and this is done
11:58purely with AI Auto out is something a
12:00lot of people struggle with right so
12:02these ux designers can now construct
12:04screens in any way they want do suggest
12:06autolayout and they're sort of done and
12:08UI designers are going to be forced to
12:11become thousand times better than AI
12:14because AI is going to get better we
12:16have seen images become better we have
12:18seen music we have seen videos all of
12:21this has grown over a period of time and
12:23it's doing a really really good job and
12:25of course figma AI is also going to
12:28start getting better better and the main
12:29reason that this FX design agency so
12:32much is because of the fact that I spoke
12:33about clients often have a very low
12:36Benchmark as they don't really
12:38understand design so you can deliver
12:40something that is half thought through
12:42that doesn't have attention to detail
12:44that sort of just gets the job done that
12:46has subpar flows right and if you want
12:48to give something in a very tight
12:50deadline you cannot you will have to
12:52compromise on quality and AI is going to
12:54enable somebody to create and generate a
12:56lot of screens and create flows a lot
12:59right so unless you're 1,000 times
13:01better than figma AI you're going to be
13:04in deep trouble and the question you
13:05need to ask yourself is is your job to
13:08impress the clients and deliver based on
13:10deadlines right if you are a designer in
13:11an agency or a service based company
13:14this is the question you have to ask
13:16yourself and if the answer is yes then
13:18you really need to rethink your future
13:20career choices right you either start
13:22need to upskilling really quickly or you
13:24need to get into a product based company
13:26and you got to do this change fast
13:27you've got another 6 months Max one year
13:30before config 2025 and God knows figma
13:33what they're going to announce next year
13:35and I have a few ideas of what they
13:36might do with AI and I'm going to show
13:38that in the last part of the video as I
13:39mentioned before so make sure you watch
13:41that I'm going to talk about the second
13:44impact which is about take-home
13:45assignments and portfolio
13:48projects now with take-home assignments
13:50there will be less focus on UI and more
13:53focus on creativity critical thinking
13:55and problem solving and this is because
13:57when you're work creating when you're
13:58doing an assignment it's so easy to
14:01quickly ask figmma to build a particular
14:03screen which looks good and what you're
14:05going to be tested on is your creativity
14:08is your critical thinking and whether
14:10you are able to identify and solve the
14:12problem appropriately right your UI
14:14design skills are not going to be given
14:16that much Focus as these other things
14:18right now and it's going to be assumed
14:20that you have a stronghold over your UI
14:22design principles because you can use
14:24figma AI to build flows and present it
14:27during the interviews but what people
14:29are going to look at is your problem
14:31solving skills and they're going to
14:32assume that you have a stronghold over
14:34your UI design principles so they're not
14:36really going to be testing that because
14:37they don't know whether you are the one
14:39who designed it from scratch or you use
14:40figma Ai and this is just a screenshot
14:43from the keynote and these screens they
14:45actually look pretty decent even though
14:47this is in beta the spacing is very well
14:49done the typography is on point and you
14:51can see you've got it's been able to do
14:54different types of layouts like the
14:55first screen is with dark mode it's got
14:58a proper Focus state it has proper ctas
15:00the typography the nav bar the T Bar
15:03they look pretty good this looks like a
15:05human actually did it the second screen
15:07is also really great looks like a really
15:09minimal polish looking app of course
15:11there are a few problems here and there
15:12some of the UI patterns they don't make
15:15complete sense but this still looks
15:17really clean and minimal right and what
15:19this means is that people who just push
15:21pixels are going to be in deep trouble
15:23if you're not thinking if you're not
15:25doing a much better job than AI you're
15:27going to be in trouble because the beta
15:29results are actually pretty decent and
15:32companies are now going to need a way to
15:34validate your skills right they will not
15:37be able to validate your UI design
15:39skills the best they can do is probably
15:40invite you to the company and and you
15:42know sort of see you design screens
15:44right but if you presented your work
15:46with screens generated with Sigma AI
15:48That's All Right but they need a way to
15:50validate your entire skill right and so
15:53what that means is you now have to
15:55become a better articulator and a
15:57Storyteller the this is what is going to
16:00separate you from the rest of the people
16:02because AI is not going to do this for
16:03you you have to do this all on your own
16:06and if you're a good critical thinker
16:07you're a good Problem Solver you're a
16:09good Observer you will be able to
16:11articulate better and what does
16:13articulation really mean here it's about
16:16summing up a lot of information into a
16:18consumable quantity right and the reason
16:21I'm saying this is because long format
16:23case studies are getting outdated yes it
16:26was a trend back before when I was
16:28becoming a designer or a couple of years
16:30back but now long format case studies
16:32are filled all over the Internet they're
16:35not well written at all probably one in
16:38200 case studies are even worth reading
16:40and nobody even has the time to sit and
16:42read all this because they are not
16:43articulated well they are basically an
16:46information dump it's just everything
16:48that you did you dump that into a very
16:50long case study and nobody has the time
16:52to read it right and I want to point out
16:55something over here in one of the
16:56sessions they showed this feature I
16:59think it's going to come soon where they
17:01took a couple of sticky notes from fig
17:03jam and figma AI was able to take those
17:06sticky notes and prepare a presentation
17:08around it and what this made me realize
17:10is that now when you want to create this
17:13presentation in a short form all you
17:15have to do is create a couple of sticky
17:17notes talk about the pr statement talk
17:19about some of the things that you did
17:21your Insight your Solutions and you take
17:24all of that and you let figma AI prepare
17:26this presentation deck and it's probably
17:28going to do pretty well and of course
17:30it's going to make some mistakes and you
17:31might have to tweak things around but
17:33it's going to help you take all those
17:35things and articulate it in a very nice
17:37way and that is how you are going to
17:39stand out the better you articulate and
17:42talk about the problem statement and the
17:43solution and your process the more
17:45you're going to stand out and get those
17:47brownie points right so I wanton really
17:48wanted to point this out and maybe when
17:50the feature is out I probably will make
17:52a video on explaining how I would use
17:54this feature to prepare a
17:56presentation and decks are now going to
17:59become the industry Norm it's already
18:01been the norm for a long time that's why
18:02when you see most of the designers from
18:04really big companies and very senior
18:06designers they have design decks and
18:09small case studies they don't really
18:10have huge huge case studies so the
18:12industry is now going to start moving
18:14into this format where you will now have
18:16to start creating design decks instead
18:17of writing super long case studies now
18:20another thing that I want to touch upon
18:21is landing pages now this was a prompt
18:23and this is obviously from the keynote
18:26and this is a pretty good portfolio
18:27website now of course it has a few
18:29mistakes if you see that the navigation
18:31link items seem to be pretty huge they
18:33should be pretty small but that's okay
18:35and if you actually watch the keyote you
18:37will realize that this output that AI
18:39generated was actually pretty amazing
18:41and what this basically means is that no
18:44one is going to care how your portfolio
18:46website looks unless there is something
18:48really exceptional about it so having a
18:51portfolio website is not going to be a
18:53Competitive Edge anymore right you might
18:55as well use notion or some other
18:57platform itself to present your work at
19:00the end of the day your work is what
19:01matters the most another thing that's
19:03going to happen is whiteboarding rounds
19:05are now going to become more important
19:08because this will be the true way of
19:10identifying your skill set you're
19:12already going to enter the interview
19:14rounds with good screens that are going
19:16to be designed whether you know UI
19:17design or not it won't matter because we
19:19will never know how to valuate that what
19:22we can evaluate is your problem solving
19:24skills your ability to think your
19:26ability to ask good questions your
19:27ability to articulate these are the
19:29things that people are going to start
19:30focusing on and whiteboarding rounds are
19:32going to be more important and I've
19:34already spoken about this many times in
19:36the past right and I even have these two
19:37videos that I launched last year and
19:39when I was taking a screenshot I
19:40observed something very interesting both
19:42these videos which is part one and part
19:44to have the same amount of views and
19:47this is very rare to see which is
19:49actually very good in my case because it
19:51shows that people are taking this
19:53seriously and people are taking this
19:55seriously only because companies are
19:57demanding it and people are watching
19:59both the parts equally and I want this
20:01Behavior to grow and I want the industry
20:03to start focusing on problem solving
20:05skills rather than just execution all
20:08right moving on the third impact is on
20:11content creators and this includes me as
20:13well now if you go to the internet and
20:15you search for tutorials about product
20:17design these are the three main types of
20:19topics that you're going to see right
20:20you're going to get basic figma
20:22tutorials you're going to get a lot of
20:23news reporting which I don't really
20:25believe is content creation and then
20:27you're also going to have resources
20:28dumps right which is basically you know
20:30top five fonts top five resources top
20:32five platforms this that whatever right
20:34all of this is soon going to become
20:36irrelevant and people are not going to
20:38watch these things because these things
20:40are not going to be helpful anymore but
20:43the reason content creators do this is
20:45because this is what gets them views
20:47this is what pushes them in the
20:48algorithm this is what gets them more
20:50watch time and this is typically the
20:52kind of content people want to watch
20:54right and what you basically need to do
20:57is you need to go ahead and increase the
21:00expectations through constructive
21:01feedback you need to tell these content
21:03creators including myself if you think
21:05my content is not good enough suggest
21:07what you would like to watch suggest
21:09what sort of content you want to make
21:11what you need to do is stop appreciating
21:13content that adds no value their content
21:16needs to start having depth ask them to
21:19make content on topics and ask them to
21:21go in depth their content needs to force
21:24you to think critically this is
21:26extremely important if you're not
21:27critically thinking if you're not
21:29questioning a lot after watching a video
21:31that's not good for you because if you
21:33don't do this you're the one who's going
21:34to struggle in the very end the reason
21:36there's so much nonsense on social media
21:38is because nobody is actually telling
21:40these content creators to put out get
21:42better content nobody is giving ideas
21:44nobody's telling what they're struggling
21:46with and this doesn't have to be done in
21:48a very rude disrespectful way this has
21:50to be done through constructive
21:51criticism because that is when the
21:53content creator is going to want to take
21:54this seriously and this applies to me as
21:56well not just to other content creators
21:58now let's move to the next part which is
22:01impact 4 to design school and online
22:04courses now if you go to a design school
22:07the onee two-year course will actually
22:10drastically slow down your career it's
22:12going to slow it down so much if you go
22:14to design school today and let me
22:16explain to you why design schools will
22:18only help you look at the world from a
22:20design standpoint they're not going to
22:22teach you figma they're not going to
22:23teach you interaction design they're not
22:24going to teach you what product
22:26designers actually do they just help you
22:28look at the world from a design
22:30standpoint and that's not what you need
22:31and you don't need one to two years to
22:33do that and they will never teach you
22:35how to do problem solving from a product
22:37design perspective of course they will
22:39teach you problem solving and
22:40articulation and research and all of
22:42these things right but what sort of job
22:44are you going to do after you graduate
22:46right if you're going to be a product
22:47designer then a design school is not
22:49going to teach you any of these things a
22:52design school is going to prepare you
22:54for something that's totally different
22:56and all the things that you have to
22:57learn to become a product designer you
22:59have to learn that on your own and that
23:01is happening even today there is no
23:04design University in the world that
23:06prepares you to be a product designer
23:08and AI is going to get smarter so if you
23:10spend 2 years in design school by the
23:12time you graduate AI would have gotten
23:14so stronger and it's going to get faster
23:17as time progresses and what will happen
23:19to you is you will eventually be left
23:21behind and the ship would have sailed
23:23because you spent 2 years in a bubble in
23:26design school and the world really moved
23:28on really fast and people jumped on the
23:30AI board and then just sailed away now
23:33coming to online courses the major
23:35problem with online courses is that
23:38their 3 to six month course is not
23:40enough to build critical thinking skills
23:43right this is a much better alternative
23:45to design schools but these courses also
23:48have their drawbacks because this 3 to 6
23:51month period will Lally help you think
23:53like a product designer it's not going
23:54to teach you problem solving skills it's
23:56going to it's not going to teach you
23:57critical thinking skills the main reason
23:59is because you're inclined to follow
24:02their structure and their pace of
24:04learning if you probably spent 3 to 6
24:07months just focusing on critical
24:09thinking and problem solving then it's
24:10good but most of these courses have a
24:13following structure and you're forced to
24:15sort of learn at the pace that they
24:17they're teaching it's pretty much like
24:18school right when you have an exam you
24:21just study what is start you go back
24:22home and you learn what was Tau that
24:24particular day you never do things at
24:26your own pace and if you did try to do
24:28things at your own pace then why did you
24:31pay money to join this course right so
24:34you either follow their pace of learning
24:35or you do things on your own right so
24:38that's the biggest problem and basic UI
24:41design skills can be learned for free
24:42online right you don't really need a
24:45super fancy course for that right before
24:47the dawn of design influencers and
24:49YouTubers and content creators in the
24:51design industry everybody learned UI
24:53design skills for free nobody was
24:55selling these courses nobody was making
24:57money off of this no body was
24:58commoditizing this right everybody
25:00learned You by design for free so now
25:03why is it that suddenly you need money
25:04to learn all this right and finally
25:06number five is the effect on product
25:09companies now this is going to be super
25:10short because typically designers and
25:13product companies are safe right they're
25:15already a lot better than AI if you're
25:17working in a product company there's a
25:18very high chance that you don't really
25:20have to fear but there are some things
25:22to keep in mind very early stage
25:24startups may not need designers to
25:27design their MV and this is super early
25:29stage and I see a lot of people who work
25:31in these super early stage startups and
25:33this company has been around for
25:34probably 1 to 2 years or maybe even 3
25:36years they're still designing their
25:38product right to design their MVP figma
25:40AI is more than enough and the engineers
25:42and product managers themselves can
25:44figure things out right the engineers
25:45are going to look at the design they're
25:47probably going to figure out how it is
25:48PMS if they have some amount of design
25:50background or some design sense PMs can
25:52do a pretty good job themselves they
25:54don't really need great designers
25:56because they're designing an MVP and
25:58they want something simpler smaller
26:00startups on the other hand may need less
26:02designers it's not that they will not
26:04need any designers for example if
26:06there's a startup that has two products
26:07a consumer facing and internal tool or
26:10maybe not even inter to a web app of
26:12that right the same designer a single
26:14designer can quickly run a few problems
26:16with Sigma AI come up with a few initial
26:19designs build a really quickly a design
26:21system and can do both mobile and web so
26:24smaller startups May hire less designers
26:26because the PMs and engineers and all of
26:28these guys can work together and figure
26:30things out right you don't need so many
26:31designers to this you don't need UI
26:33designer ux designer product designer
26:35right just a very small team of design
26:36is going to be enough which means the
26:38demand is going to sort of drop at a
26:40company level now what I want to do is I
26:41want to give you an example of what AI
26:44can not do and I'm going to take an
26:46example of swiy and this is something
26:47that I recently saw on social media a
26:49lot of people were complaining about
26:50this and when they were complaining I
26:52started questioning a lot of things so
26:55swiigy came out with this screen and if
26:57you see the bottom tab you see this tab
26:59called as reorder it's pretty obvious
27:02why this feature exists and you know
27:04there's no rocket science about it right
27:06and I'm taking a very tiny small
27:08example and as you can see it is the
27:10fifth Tab out of the six tabs that are
27:13there and when I saw this I immediately
27:17questioning now I thought about how did
27:20somebody decide that having a tab is the
27:24right solution to solve the problem
27:26right now obviously the problem they
27:27want to solve is they want us they want
27:29people to order faster spend less time
27:32on the app thinking uh because that
27:34might lead to more drop offs so it's lot
27:37easier if people can just reorder maybe
27:39this came as a customer request maybe
27:41they're doing an AB test and I'm pretty
27:42sure they're running this as an AB test
27:44because I don't think they would launch
27:45a feature directly like that right
27:46you're adding a tab that's a very
27:48serious uh you know design decision or a
27:51product decision right so they just
27:52won't do it lightly they will obviously
27:54probably testing it um and maybe they
27:56ran a beta test with a couple of users
27:57much before I don't know right but the
27:59question is why did somebody decide that
28:01this has to be a tab and what should be
28:03the tab's position should it be 1 2 3 4
28:065 6 why is it the fifth tab right will
28:08people even look at that I don't know
28:12and why are there no entry points right
28:14why didn't they have an entry point on
28:16this home screen and decide to have it
28:18on the bottom tab right now here's the
28:20thing an AI will never be able to answer
28:23these questions and an AI will never
28:26generate a design with six tabs because
28:29the AI has been told by online sources
28:31by the guidelines everywhere that a that
28:34a phone cannot have more than five tabs
28:37so an AI is never going to think out of
28:40the box is never going to be creative is
28:42never going to challenge the status
28:44score and suggest a design that looks
28:46like this and this is something only a
28:48smart human being or basically a smart
28:51product designer can do now of course I
28:54don't work at sgy I don't know how these
28:55decisions were made maybe it's right
28:57maybe it's wrong I have no clue right
28:58but these are the questions that popped
29:00into my head now when you go to this
29:02reorder tab you see this particular
29:04screen right and here are two of my
29:06recent orders and this is how the flow
29:09looks like when you're trying to add
29:10something you can tap on the plus
29:12buttons um and you know you can go ahead
29:14and add your order right now when I
29:16looked at this screen now generating a
29:18screen like this maybe it's sort of easy
29:21for figma AI to do it right maybe it's
29:23going to generate a screen like this but
29:26there's a lot more to think about
29:29now first of all what should be the
29:30screen layout right how should the
29:33screen look what if I have 30 different
29:35ERS how is that screen going to look is
29:38this the best way to have a screen
29:39layout how many items are going are they
29:42show should they show restaurants too
29:45because right now they're just showing
29:47basically only the last orders right
29:51what if I want to have restaurants also
29:53maybe that decision makes sense maybe
29:55that doesn't is that that's a question
29:57you want to ask what are the various
29:59data points to show here right for
30:01example for B company you can see that
30:04with the price they've mentioned the
30:06original price as well why was that
30:08important to be shown maybe there's a
30:10reason for it we don't know what if
30:13there are a lot more data points that
30:14you want to add what if there are
30:16multiple orders from the same restaurant
30:19maybe I did five different orders from B
30:22company or uruu park right how is that
30:24going to look what is going to be a much
30:28and if you look at the interaction over
30:30here it didn't allow me to order all the
30:32three items in one shot it forced me to
30:35select each of the items and place an
30:37order again now maybe this makes sense
30:41maybe this doesn't make sense what if I
30:43had ordered only one item now maybe this
30:45design makes a lot more sense than the
30:47other options but who decides what the
30:49interaction should be so AI is never
30:51going to be able to answer these
30:53questions and only a really smart
30:54product designer is going to ask these
30:56questions is going to do tons of
30:58iterations is going to validate it's
31:00going to know what is good design and
31:02what is bad design it's know how to go
31:03to test it it's going to know how to
31:05take the output of AI design and change
31:08it to meet the needs of the company
31:11that's what people are going to start
31:13looking at constructing the screen is no
31:15rocket science but how to do it is what
31:18product designers really required to do
31:20but how the screen should look and work
31:22is something product designers are going
31:24to be needed for I'm going to give you
31:26another example so very recent recently
31:28I was filing my income tax return and my
31:30CA does this for me and he spent 2 hours
31:33filling up all the information and he
31:34texted me saying that hey I filled up
31:36all the information have a look I'll
31:38file it now when I opened up the income
31:40tax website and I landed this is the
31:42main thing that I see now as you can see
31:44over here there are two CTS and I've
31:45actually hidden the labels and I want
31:48you people to take the next 15 seconds
31:50to think about what should these ctas be
31:54right so pause the video look at the
31:55screen and tell and think about what the
31:58CTA should be all right now I'm going to
32:01reveal to you what it
32:03is this is what it is it is file now and
32:06resume filing now the moment I opened up
32:09the website I actually wanted to click
32:11on file now but before doing that I saw
32:15this note that said in case File now is
32:18selected the existing saved draft will
32:21get overridden if any now what this
32:25basically means is if you click on file
32:27now you're going to delete the existing
32:29draft and you're going to start from
32:31scratch this freaked me out because I
32:34was about to press on this all right how
32:37is the secondary CTA resume filing the
32:39primary CTA should be resume filing and
32:42the secondary CTA should be create new
32:44right now to iterate on all the things
32:47that I've said before the entire
32:49redesign of the income tax website was
32:51done by a design team in infosis and
32:54infosis as we know is a service based
32:56company and they probably have some
32:57design department or some sort of design
32:59team that's going to do this now who
33:01really approved this design who thought
33:04that it was okay to have file now as a
33:06primary CTA this is going to create a
33:08lot of problems my CA just spent two
33:10hours trying to fill up the form and now
33:13I clicked on file Now by mistake and
33:15everything is lost right why can't we
33:17just have resume as the primary CTA
33:20right now the point I'm trying to make
33:22here is that people can say oh figma's
33:24AI is not that good but even people who
33:27are shipping products are not that good
33:30and if AI gets better and AI is going to
33:32get better and much faster it's going to
33:34make life hard for all the junior
33:36designers out there who are trying to
33:37upskill or grow in their career so one
33:40of the biggest point I want to make is
33:42that this phrase that says fake it until
33:45you make it you can't do that anymore
33:47you can't fake things anymore at all
33:50right you might have gotten through your
33:51career with a little bit of luck now and
33:53then here and there because maybe your
33:54UI design skills were a little bit
33:56better than others but that sort of ends
33:58now and you will now be put in a spot
34:00and forced to become a much better
34:03designer and upskill you really have to
34:06grow Your Arsenal right now you need to
34:08have multiple skills because AI is going
34:10to pressurize everybody to upskill right
34:12now and so I want to talk about the
34:14three main skills that you need to start
34:16focusing on the first one is creativity
34:20now creativity is natural for some
34:22people and some people get creativity by
34:25practicing a lot and I definitely have
34:27no natural Talent of creativity all my
34:29creativity has been years and years and
34:31years of practice even before I became a
34:33product designer right my eye for design
34:36my intuition my attention to detail all
34:38of this has come with years of practice
34:41right so the only way to get creative is
34:45practicing and the question you need to
34:47ask yourself is can you be thousand
34:49times more creative than figma AI right
34:52it's not about being a little bit better
34:54you got to be a lot better because not
34:56only will you be figma AI you're going
34:58to beat a lot of other designers who are
35:00competing for the same job right this is
35:02what is going to make you stand out the
35:04second skill is about critical thinking
35:07what you need to do is you need to start
35:09surrounding yourself with really smart
35:11people just the way you filter your
35:13Instagram feed your Twitter your
35:15LinkedIn and you don't really try to
35:17consume content that is not adding any
35:19value make sure the people you surround
35:21yourself with are also very smart people
35:23talk to them understand their
35:25perspective learn from them this is the
35:28only way you're going to start thinking
35:29and don't be fooled by all the social
35:30media nonsense any piece of content you
35:33see question that is this actually
35:36valuable how is this going to help me
35:38how much of an impact will this make to
35:40my skills or my career question these
35:42things and don't be fooled by all the
35:45nonsense you have to become a better
35:47Observer and a problem identifier this
35:51is basically how you become a better
35:52critical thinker you need to observe
35:54better and you need to identify problems
35:57better and one of the ways that I
35:59suggest people to do is to start
36:00experiencing life more now of course
36:02this is not really you know something
36:04related to design this is just general
36:06life advice right but the more you
36:08experience life right it could be
36:10something as simple as applying for visa
36:12for you know a trip that you're doing
36:14organizing a solo trip it could be
36:17anything start experiencing life more
36:19because then life is going to put you in
36:21situations where you are forced to think
36:24and eventually you will start asking
36:26more questions right one of the most
36:29important things to understand is that
36:30answers exist but questions don't all
36:34the content that's put online on social
36:36media or on the Internet is basically
36:38because of the questions people have
36:40gotten right so if you ask more
36:43questions and if you ask better
36:45questions you're going to get better
36:47answers and better content right the
36:49answers have always existed questions
36:52don't so you need to ask those questions
36:55I'm going to take a small example over
36:56here so I don't know how many if you
36:57know this person but he for the for a
37:01long period of time he has been putting
37:02out these posts where he takes a simple
37:05problem right some of these are really
37:06funny and these are just Concepts these
37:08might not be scalable right but you can
37:11see how he's thinking like a proper
37:13problem identifier and observer and
37:15Problem Solver right so the first one is
37:17about um having uh AI summarize your
37:20long voice notes right that's a super
37:22helpful feature right now it's so easy
37:25for Apple to do this but he actually
37:27just thought about it and it probably
37:30took him 10 to 15 minutes but he's
37:31training his brain to think like that
37:34the second one an IA option to set an
37:36alarm and wake me up at all costs now
37:38this is obviously a little bit of a
37:40funny example right where it says we'll
37:42disable the snooze button and a text a
37:44new person for every minute you sleep in
37:46right now of course the solution is a
37:48little funky and this is he's just
37:49playing around right but it's a really
37:51good problem that he's identified and
37:53he's come up with some sort of solution
37:55obviously if he actually put in the time
37:56and effort would definitely be able to
37:58come up with a really good solution but
38:00you can see his problem solving skills
38:02right and Google Maps option to see how
38:04safe your current location is this is a
38:06super great example right this is
38:09definitely that a lot of people want to
38:10know especially women they would want to
38:11know this information right when you go
38:13to unknown locality when you go to a new
38:15country when you're traveling to a new
38:16country you're on sightseeing you're on
38:18vacation this information is super
38:20helpful right and it's a simple problem
38:22that every human being faces and I'm
38:23sure everybody has thought about it
38:26right but is that a back of your mind do
38:28you know what to do with that
38:29information right so when you're a
38:30better Observer you become a better
38:33problem identifier right so this is how
38:35you develop critical thinking
38:37skills and finally it's all about
38:41articulation right an articulation can
38:44only come with strong feedback and
38:47practice this is the only way to do it
38:50right so you connect with smart people
38:53you get their feedback and you practice
38:55you fail and you practice right right
38:58this is the only way to become better at
39:00articulation it takes a lot of feedback
39:03and practice and a lot of this can be
39:05implemented while you're working in the
39:07company itself right try to get feedback
39:09from your senior managers Your Design
39:11leads your stakeholders and ask them to
39:13help you itself it doesn't have to come
39:15from Design This is basically a
39:17communication skill and this is a human
39:19skill right so anybody who you are
39:21talking to who you are explaining
39:22something to who you're trying to sell
39:24something to take their feedback and
39:26practice now the final part of the video
39:29where I'm going to talk about the future
39:30of figma AI now what we saw in the
39:34keynote was this basically this one
39:36prompt where the output was an
39:38individual screen make a form with
39:40filters for a recipe app the output that
39:43it gave was pretty decent no problems
39:46with it but what is it that figma can
39:49start doing and I'm pretty sure they're
39:51probably going to announce a couple more
39:52things you can do with AI at config 2025
39:55and these are my predictions right now
39:58instead of an individual screen you can
40:00also create individual screens with
40:02custom design system components and this
40:04is actually mentioned in the keynote
40:06where they said that they actually want
40:07to reach there they want you to feed
40:10design system components to the AI and
40:12AI is going to use your design system
40:14components and build a screen out of it
40:17right so which means an engineer or
40:20probably a product manager with basic
40:22figma skills will be able to build the
40:24entire app from scratch and they will
40:27never even need a designer and this is
40:29pretty scary for people who don't Focus
40:32completely on all product design skills
40:34another example is it can maybe start
40:36generating user flows so if you say make
40:38a user flow for a movie ticket booking
40:40experience maybe it's going to put out
40:42five to six screens and all you have to
40:44do is clean it up make sure the copy
40:47makes sense make sure the flow makes
40:49sense and everything AI is done 80% of
40:53right it can also polish screens maybe
40:56you can say take this screen and improve
40:58typography right which means that people
41:02can just explore ideas they can produce
41:04faster they can ship faster right and
41:06this is just execution work so if your
41:09job is to take wireframes and to make
41:11them look pretty yeah is going to do
41:13that for you it can even take a bad
41:15designer's work and make that better
41:19right so if you are not producing
41:20screens that are as good as what figma
41:22AI generates then you're in trouble
41:24here's another one make 10 different
41:26versions of this card component right
41:29maybe you give it five six data points
41:31and you say can you make 10 different
41:32versions of this and then you take each
41:34of those versions you see if it makes
41:36sense you put it in your screens you
41:37maybe do some testing and you're sorted
41:40right another one follow Specific
41:43Instructions right for example you can
41:45say emphasize the top section of the
41:47screen right maybe you have a chart
41:49maybe you have a carousel maybe you have
41:51some information I don't know whatever
41:52it is right and if you're doing this
41:54basic execution type work as a product
41:56designer deser or basically a UI
41:58designer yeahi can do this and finally
42:00the last one it can probably maybe even
42:03solve small problems so maybe you give
42:04it a screen and you say hey can you
42:06suggest ideas to increase the CTR on
42:08this screen maybe it's going to do a
42:10good job maybe it doesn't right and I
42:12don't think this is going to come you
42:13know anytime within 2 years right maybe
42:15maybe not I don't know but AI is very
42:17much capable of doing this right so if
42:20you're solving very basic problems
42:22you're not really focusing on problem
42:23solving you're able to do something that
42:26a product manager or an engineer can
42:28also do then you're going to be in deep
42:30trouble and I want to end this video by
42:33basically saying that now everybody is
42:35going to start at the same place and how
42:38you take this opportunity to upskill to
42:41become much better than figma AI will
42:44give you the chance to completely change
42:46your career trajectory so that's pretty
42:48much it for this video guys thank you
42:50guys so much for watching hope you guys
42:51really enjoyed it if you did let me know
42:52in the comment sections down below make
42:53sure to leave a like And subscribe to
42:55the channel for more amazing awesome
42:56content see you guys in my next video so
42:58then take care and bye-bye