22d • General discussion
Coffee Hour Recap: Design Tools vs AI Tools — What we’re actually doing in 2026
What a solid session — and a really good turnout. Thanks to everyone who joined and contributed to the FigJam mapping + dot-voting.
Here are the key patterns that came through:
1) The “design tool” future looks hybrid, not a clean replacement
Most of the group leaned toward a mix of visual tools + AI copilots, rather than “all-in code-first” or “same as before.”
2) AI is helping… but mostly as an assistive layer
The dominant sentiment was: AI has changed workflows a little (speed-ups), not a total transformation for most people yet.
3) The biggest near-term shift is in research + synthesis
When we asked where the shift happens first, the strongest signal was research & synthesis, followed by UI production. This matched the “Pain/Wish” notes too: people want better note-taking, transcript quality, and insight extraction from calls and research sessions.
4) The “PM/Designer ships everything” hypothesis: not fully true (yet)
On “one person can ship a decent MVP end-to-end,” the room leaned toward somewhat disagree, with the bottleneck often being engineering realities, sustainability, and trust.
5) Collaboration is improving (quiet win)
Most people said their dominant workflow is now designer + dev collaborating continuously (vs pure handoff). That’s a meaningful maturity shift.
6) Governance is the leadership topic hiding in plain sight
The room leaned toward standardising an official AI tool stack to reduce chaos and risk. Biggest perceived risk: shallow thinking / low craft (moving too fast and not validating properly).
7) 2026 prediction: Figma stays central — but more focused
The group’s expectation: by end of 2026, Figma remains central for core UI + design systems. And the most valuable people? Those who frame problems and lead alignment.
Practical “next experiments” people can try
- Choose one AI assist for research/synthesis (notes → themes → quotes) and test it for 2 weeks
- Define a lightweight AI governance baseline (privacy, what not to paste, where outputs can be used)
- Pick one workflow to tighten: Figma ↔ docs ↔ Jira ↔ dev handoff/integration
- Add one quality guardrail: a “validation checklist” so speed doesn’t kill depth
🎥 Recording is available to view on this post and FigJam exports added for anyone who wants to review the tool map and poll results.
If you joined, drop a comment about your key insights from the session - did anything surprise you about the current practical landscape of fellow attendees?
1:09:24
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Coffee Hour Recap: Design Tools vs AI Tools — What we’re actually doing in 2026
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