“The future won’t be designed by accident.” That was the optimistic message Figma CEO Dylan Field delivered during the opening keynote at Config 2025, emphasizing the pivotal role designers will play in an era where AI is making it easier to create software than ever before. Dylan reassured the audience of professional designers that as AI accelerates everything, design will be the differentiator. Why? As Figma’s VP of Product Sho Kuwamoto aptly put it during our conversation, “Design helps you decide what you should make, and with AI accelerating everything you better be the one making the right thing.”  As for Figma’s product announcements, I left the event feeling a mix of excitement and  trepidation. Here’s my take after attending the event and speaking with several Figma leaders. 

New Products Accelerate The Path From Idea To Shipped Experience  

Figma unveiled four new products this year: Figma Sites, Figma Make, Figma Buzz, and Figma Draw. Each is designed to help teams go from idea to launch as quickly as possible. These releases also signal Figma’s push to bring even more user types into its ecosystem. Here are my key takeaways:  

  • Prototyping gets supercharged. Figma Make (currently in beta) enables designers to turn Figma design files or written prompts into working prototypes, using natural language prompts to refine the output. Creating high-fidelity working prototypes is a great use case for genAI because prototypes help teams validate ideas with users, iterate faster, and communicate design ideas to stakeholders. 
  • Figma brings marketers into its ecosystem. Figma Buzz (currently in beta) targets brand and marketing teams, bringing new users into Figma’s collaboration-focused ecosystem. With Figma Buzz teams can collaborate on social media, event, and other brand content using customizable templates and editing tools. Figma’s move to bridge the gap between product design and marketing teams is reminiscent of its efforts to do the same with the designer/developer workflow when it launched Dev Mode in 2023.  The product is clearly a move to compete with Canva, and for companies with a design system who want to drive consistency across marketing, design, and development Buzz is a product to watch.  
  • Enhanced tools support everyday design tasks. New auto layout feature “Grid” (currently in beta) helps designers easily create flexible and responsive layouts, eliminating the workarounds Figma observed designers applying today.  It also launched Figma Draw (now GA), a set of tools focused on visual design with enhanced vector editing and illustration features. While less flashy, designers I spoke with at the event value these upgrades for streamlining everyday tasks.   

The Figma Sites Debacle Shows That Accessibility Can’t Be An Afterthought 

Inclusive design is more crucial now than ever – but it clearly wasn’t a requirement for Figma Sites. Figma Sites (currently in beta), which turns designs into live websites, was swiftly criticized (here’s an example) by designers, developers, and accessibility experts for generating inaccessible code. The feedback echoes what I observe in my work with clients who increasingly think that if a product doesn’t meet accessibility standards it’s not ready to release to customers. 

Should Figma have done better? Absolutely.  It’s troubling for a company whose mission is to “make design accessible to everyone” to launch a product that creates inaccessible outputs. As the go-to tool for product design, Figma has a responsibility to set the standard for quality. On the bright side, Figma has always had a strong connection with its community, and I have confidence it will address this feedback quickly. Until it does, I advise organizations hold off on using Figma Sites.  

Get In Touch 

If you’re a Forrester client and would like to dive deeper into any of the topics discussed above, or just chat more about what I learned at the event, set up a conversation with me. You can also follow or connect with me on LinkedIn.