stripeJun 18, 2026

What Link data tells us about AI spending (opens in new tab)

Link’s survey and transaction data show rapidly growing consumer engagement with AI. Among 250 million Link customers, spending on AI products—especially AI app-building platforms—has surged, with top spenders nearly doubling their monthly AI spending in one quarter. Stripe argues this growth points toward a need for payment infrastructure that allows AI agents to transact on users’ behalf. ### Growing Spending on AI Products - A survey of 394 Link customers found: - 80% had used a chat-based AI agent in the previous month. - 50% used AI for shopping research at least monthly. - The top 10% of AI spenders increased monthly spending from: - $183 in December 2025 - $359 in March 2026 - This cohort previously took 22 months to grow from $84 to $183, but doubled that amount in only three months. - Median spending also rose, from $60 to $72 per month. ### Strong Demand for AI App Builders - Spending growth was even greater for platforms such as Replit, Lovable, and Bolt. - The highest-spending Link customers now spend five times more each month on AI app-building platforms than they did in January 2025. - This suggests users are investing not only in AI tools, but also in platforms that let them create software with AI. ### Payments for AI Agents - As AI agents become more capable and common, they will need to purchase goods and services from businesses and potentially from one another. - Stripe’s Link wallet for agents is designed to support this activity by: - Letting users authorize agent payments. - Providing configurable spending controls. - Giving agents purchasing access across Stripe sellers. - Providing businesses with verified transactions without requiring custom integrations. Stripe’s data indicates that AI adoption is translating into substantial spending, particularly on AI development platforms. Businesses preparing for agent-driven commerce may benefit from supporting secure, user-authorized agent payments.

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figmaJun 11, 2024

The Long and Short of It: Issue no.5 | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Issue no. 5 of Figma’s newsletter, “Come together,” argues that progress depends on community, collaboration, and shared inspiration. Ahead of Config, it highlights creators and leaders whose work shows how connection—whether in person or online—helps turn ideas into reality. The issue spans product development, design quality, creative experimentation, AI, and community events. ## Building tools that feel magical - Charmaine Lee, product manager for Snap’s Lens Studio, shares principles for creating developer tools that delight creators. - Her approach emphasizes hands-on involvement, collaboration, and understanding the creator’s experience rather than following rigid product-building rules. - The feature presents creator-focused product development as an “all-hands-on-deck” effort. ## Craft, beauty, and product quality - Leaders from Stripe, Linear, and Figma discuss how to define and measure craft and beauty in digital products. - Katie Dill, Karri Saarinen, and Yukhi Yamashita explore the relationship between form and function. - Their central argument is that thoughtful design is not merely cosmetic: quality and beauty can contribute directly to product adoption and business growth. ## Designing quilts in Figma - Former product designer Nicole Boettcher uses Figma to plan and design handmade quilts. - Her process demonstrates how digital design tools can support physical, artistic work beyond conventional interface design. - The project playfully extends the idea of “moving rectangles,” connecting her former profession with her current craft. ## AI and creative tools - David Hoang, formerly of Replit, discusses how AI is changing creative tools, product design, and development workflows. - He recommends responding to rapid change through shared learning and strong communities. - Cohorts that combine accountability with fun can help people stay motivated as they develop new skills. ## Config and community opportunities - In-person Config tickets are sold out, but virtual attendance and local watch parties remain available. - Readers can follow the live blog for speaker highlights and event coverage. - The issue also promotes illustrator Thomas Colligan’s artwork, new Config merchandise, and the upcoming Figma Store release. Figma’s overall recommendation is to stay connected: creative progress is strengthened by mentors, collaborators, peers, and communities that make learning and experimentation possible.

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figmaFeb 25, 2024

David Hoang on how AI brings design and development together | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

AI is reshaping creative tools by making interfaces more dynamic, multimodal, and less fully controlled by designers. David Hoang argues that design and engineering are converging as AI augments both disciplines, enabling more people to move from learning and prototyping to shipping real products. Replit’s focus is “Artificial Developer Intelligence” (ADI), aimed at increasing autonomy, productivity, and collaboration rather than pursuing general intelligence. ## Dynamic Interfaces and a New Design Paradigm - Like the rise of mobile, AI is resetting the field and giving designers an opportunity to rethink how people interact with technology. - Interfaces will increasingly adapt across modalities and form factors instead of presenting a fixed, fully designed experience. - Designers must relinquish some control over presentation while shaping how systems behave and respond. - AI, spatial computing—including Apple Vision Pro—and other emerging technologies are converging to create new interaction models. ## Design and Engineering Converge - AI can augment both designers and engineers, making the boundaries between the disciplines less distinct. - Product development is evolving toward a tightly integrated design-and-engineering practice. - Replit frames this strategy as Artificial Developer Intelligence, or ADI, rather than Artificial General Intelligence. - ADI is intended to give people greater autonomy and productivity through collaboration between humans and AI. ## Replit’s Vision for Artificial Developer Intelligence - Future ADI agents could: - Generate code and complete code automatically. - Build complex software architectures. - Orchestrate advanced tools deployed on Replit. - Understand how teams work and improve organizational collaboration. - Hoang describes Replit as a potential “technical co-founder” for people with ideas but limited technical expertise. - The goal is to accelerate the path from learning to coding, launching a business, and scaling an idea. ## Lowering the Barrier to Building Software - AI-powered tools can enable nontechnical users to create technically sophisticated applications. - A Replit hackathon example showed a nontechnical product manager producing work that surpassed projects built by teams of engineers. - Prompting becomes an important skill because translating goals into effective instructions resembles the product manager’s role in defining what should be built. AI’s practical impact may be greatest when it helps people combine product judgment, design, and engineering execution. Rather than replacing creative or technical roles, tools like ADI are positioned to expand who can build software and shorten the distance between an idea and a working product.

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