Figma AI puts Make Designs, Visual Search and one-click prototypes inside the design tool

In June 2024, at its Config conference, Figma introduced Figma AI — a suite of AI features inside the design editor, announced by CTO Kris Rasmussen. The goal was to help designers at every stage: finding existing designs, generating first drafts, writing realistic copy and shipping prototypes.

Make Designs turns a text prompt into UI layouts and component options, directly addressing the 'blank canvas problem'. Visual Search finds visually similar designs by uploading an image, selecting a canvas area or typing a query; AI-enhanced asset search understands meaning, so searching 'primary button' can surface a component actually named 'btn_large'. Make Prototype turns static mocks into interactive prototypes, and Rename Layers automates a chore that can save hours across a project.

Figma was explicit about data: the generative features used third-party, out-of-the-box models and were not trained on private customer files; Visual and Asset Search were fine-tuned on public, free Community files. Admins received controls over whether team content could be used for AI training, participation was optional, and the beta was free for all users through 2024.