figmaMar 2, 2026

Our Config 2026 Speakers on the Biggest Opportunities With AI | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s Config 2026 speakers see AI as more than a productivity tool: it is expanding the scope of creative work, from software and music to fashion and manufacturing. Their perspectives emphasize human direction, participation, taste, and intention as AI accelerates experimentation. The central opportunity is to use AI to extend creative capacity without losing the distinctly human role of shaping meaning and purpose. ## AI as a New Creative Medium - Holly Herndon describes software as one of the defining artistic mediums of the current era. - AI enables studios to take on more complex projects, shifting creative roles toward orchestration. - Herndon and Mat Dryhurst’s *Starmirror* treats AI models as collective, public endeavors: - Visitors and local choirs contribute vocal data. - The data will train a new AI choir. - Participants engage with both the model’s inputs and outputs. - The project demonstrates how creative work can keep humans actively involved rather than treating AI as an isolated generator. ## Connecting Digital Creativity to the Physical World - Danit Peleg argues that AI will increasingly create tangible objects, not just digital designs. - AI is likely to influence: - Manufacturing - Architecture - Fashion - Wearable textiles - Peleg uses AI agents throughout her production pipeline, from initial concepts through fabrication. - Figma Weave, created after Figma’s acquisition of Weavy, is intended to expand AI-native capabilities for: - Image and video generation - Animation and motion design - VFX creation and editing - These tools point toward workflows where digital concepts can move more directly into physical production. ## Creativity as Attention and Care - Vicki Tan connects creativity with decision-making: both involve following questions and intuition despite uncertainty. - She argues that creativity is not primarily originality or talent, but care, attention, and sustained engagement with an idea. - Her interpretation of the French word *attendre*—to wait for or tend to—frames creativity as allowing meaning to emerge over time. - Rather than constantly seeking something completely new, creators can begin by noticing what already feels personal, meaningful, or instinctively theirs. ## Rethinking Creative Work in 2026 - The featured speakers come from varied fields, including art, fashion, behavioral design, software strategy, and emerging technology. - Their work challenges older assumptions about creativity and encourages experimentation with new processes. - AI’s greatest value may lie in amplifying human judgment, participation, and creative intent rather than replacing them. Creators should treat AI as an expandable medium and collaborator while preserving the human practices—attention, taste, participation, and purpose—that give creative work meaning.

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figmaJun 25, 2024

Welcome to The Prompt | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

AI may transform design and building, but its ultimate impact remains unsettled. Figma’s *The Prompt* explores that uncertainty through essays and interviews with experts across design, engineering, product development, and the built environment. The collection argues that human judgment—especially the ability to ask thoughtful, well-framed questions—will remain central to making AI useful. ## Prompting as a Creative Discipline - Prompt engineering is described as the practice of getting better answers by asking better questions. - Like interviewing or editing a magazine, effective prompting requires: - Clear context - Thoughtful framing - Useful guidance - AI’s capabilities are treated as largely inert without human direction; people must coax useful results from the technology. - The act of questioning is presented as a fundamentally human and creative instinct. ## The Purpose of *The Prompt* - Created by Figma’s Story Studio and Brand Studio, the magazine launched at Config 2024. - It combines writing, interviews, and illustrations to examine how AI is changing creative and technical work. - Contributors come from both inside and outside Figma and work across: - Design - Engineering - Product development - Robotics - Manufacturing - Residential housing ## Questions About AI’s Future The magazine uses a range of prompts to investigate both immediate applications and larger societal questions, including: - What constitutes good design when AI can generate and automate more work? - Whether code becoming a commodity should be feared - How much data is actually necessary - How starting with imperfect or incomplete ideas can shape innovation - Whether AI development can move beyond technological echo chambers - If efficiency undermines creativity - How to build AI features that people both want and trust - The relationship between artificial design intelligence (ADI) and artificial general intelligence (AGI) - Whether automation can unlock the full potential of design systems - The role of robots in construction and housing - Whether society is entering an age of androids ## Practical and Long-Term Perspectives - Contributors examine ambitious challenges, such as applying AI to manufacturing and housing. - They also focus on what AI can deliver reliably today rather than only speculating about distant possibilities. - The goal is to make complex systems more understandable and usable while learning how to guide AI more effectively. Figma presents *The Prompt* as both a magazine and an experiment in inquiry: meaningful progress with AI depends not just on increasingly capable systems, but on humans asking clearer, more imaginative, and more responsible questions.

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figmaJun 25, 2024

Should robots be building our homes? | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Icon CEO Jason Ballard argues that robotics and AI could make housing faster, cheaper, more durable, and more sustainable. Icon’s robots 3D-print cement-based walls, while its Vitruvius AI system is intended to generate designs, budgets, schedules, and eventually robotic construction instructions. Ballard sees the same technologies eventually supporting construction beyond Earth, including on the Moon. ## From Housing Mission to Robotics - Ballard’s interest in construction grew from work with homeless shelters and sustainable building in Colorado. - Although he once planned to become an Episcopalian priest, he chose to pursue housing affordability, dignity, beauty, and comfort as his life’s mission. - A master’s degree in space resources also shaped his interest in using robots for construction in extreme environments. ## Why Icon Focused on 3D-Printed Walls - Icon believed advanced software and robotics could improve construction. - The company targeted walls because they are among the slowest, most complex, and labor- and material-intensive parts of building. - Its system extrudes layers of cement-based material reinforced with steel rods. - The printed wall replaces much of conventional construction, including framing, insulation, drywall, sheathing, finishes, and siding. ## Claimed Benefits of 3D-Printed Homes - Faster and potentially more affordable construction. - Walls rated to withstand fires for two hours and 57 minutes and winds up to 250 miles per hour. - Some residents in Icon’s 3D-printed neighborhood reportedly pay as little as $17 per month in energy costs. - Icon says its homes have performed strongly in testing for compressive strength, bending, energy efficiency, fire, flooding, hurricanes, and termites. - Ballard also emphasizes that the homes can be aesthetically appealing, not merely functional. - He predicts that conventional stick-frame construction could eventually become obsolete or even prohibited. ## Vitruvius and AI-Driven Architecture - Icon had long worked on automating architectural tasks but struggled with the complexity and computational demands involved. - Building projects must account for budgets, schedules, designs, and highly localized permitting requirements. - Building codes vary across thousands of jurisdictions, making them difficult to interpret and apply. - Icon began pursuing generative AI training roughly two years before the interview. - The company collected floor plans, building designs, permits, and related documents to create what Ballard describes as the world’s largest architectural dataset. - Vitruvius is intended to produce architectural designs and construction plans, then translate them into instructions for Icon’s robots. ## Construction on Earth and Beyond - Icon’s broader ambition is to use autonomous construction systems in challenging environments. - The company is collaborating with NASA on potential infrastructure for the Moon. - Ballard presents lunar construction as an extension of the same incremental process used to improve housing on Earth. Icon’s approach combines automated design with robotic construction rather than treating AI as a standalone design tool. If its performance and cost claims continue to hold up in real-world projects, the technology could offer a promising alternative to traditional construction, particularly where labor, materials, or access are limited.

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