15 Best Tools and the Future of AI in Design

In today's guide, you'll learn exactly how AI is being used in design (and whether AI will provide better tools for designers… or replace designers altogether). Plus, you'll learn about the 12 best AI design tools.

How is AI being used in design?

Simply put, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the ability of machines to perform tasks that have until now been primarily performed by humans. AI analyzes huge amounts of data and comes up with ideas and solutions.

Ultimately, AI saves designers a lot of time.

You see, artificial intelligence can help designers make a much bigger impact by automating mundane and mundane tasks, generating ideas and content.

In fact, a study from Deloitte found that 57% of business leaders predict that AI will 'significantly transform' their company within the next three years. Two-thirds believe their entire industry will be transformed within five years through AI.

61% of employees also work more efficiently thanks to AI, while nearly half, 49%, report making faster and better decisions. Another 37% say AI improves team collaboration.

One of the notable ways AI will transform industries is by automating tasks to free up workers to be more creative.

Deloitte research found that:

31% of respondents listed creativity as their top AI benefit
28% said AI has helped them create new products
27% could pursue new markets with the help of AI

Some use cases of AI in design include:

Idea
Study
Proposed design adjustments
Create a prototype
Localization

For example, Airbnb is using AI in its design processes by generating production-ready code from hand-drawn wireframe sketches. Netflix uses AI to personalize artwork and localize banners. Other use cases include architects changing the way offices are built and artists creating award-winning artwork.

But what are the benefits of AI in design? That's what we'll look at next.

What are the benefits of AI in design?

There are four main ways in which AI benefits design and designers.

Efficiency - AI helps optimize time-consuming tasks like planning, research, and product discovery. An example of efficiency is AI's ability to summarize meeting notes or provide concise summaries of long documents.
Guidance – This benefits users, as AI provides personalized guidance or learning content within the designer's workflow, allowing them to stay on the platform instead of looking elsewhere for help.
Creativity - AI is getting better at creating original content and improving already created items. This allows designers to skip repetitive tasks in the creative process as AI can replicate their work.
Entertainment - Another great benefit of AI is its entertainment value. Designers are using AI to build games, virtual characters, and other engaging modules.

In short, designers will work better, faster, and more efficiently through the use of AI in design. Creating things that currently take a long time will become faster and cheaper. Designing that currently takes a long time (like creating a hyperspace world or 3D design) will become much more accessible.

Can AI replace designers?

Will AI replace designers? The answer is no, not anytime soon – and here's why.

A 2023 Goldman Sachs report revealed that the shift in workflows caused by AI advancements could eliminate more than 300 million full-time jobs as they are automated by AI.

However, 46% of the tasks analyzed were administrative.

The current power of AI lies in the speed at which it can analyze massive amounts of data and suggest design adjustments. So a designer can make smarter decisions or even use the extra time to A/B test multiple prototypes.

In the future, the goal will be more than just 'good design.' With the help of AI, designers can be more conscious of design decisions that connect and engage people on a deeper level.

Don't believe it? Consider that 60% of today's workers work in occupations that didn't exist in 1940. That means more than 85% of job growth over the past 80 years can be attributed to technology creating new positions.

Designers in 2025 (and beyond) need to learn to adapt to AI and upskill to learn different AI tools and harness its power. AI may not replace designers themselves, but designers will be replaced by others who know how to apply AI.

So will designers be replaced by AI?

How do designers use AI?

There are countless ways designers can use AI to enhance their creative process, but they can be summarized into three main ways.

First, there's AI that uses a text-to-image tool. That means a designer would type a prompt and maybe adjust various settings, and then the AI would generate an image.

Second, there is the possibility of 'image to image' conversion, also known as img2img. This is where the AI will use the designer's image as a source and create variations of the image based on that image.

Third, the basic 'text to text' tool allows these AI users to easily create content (e.g., a translated version of the same text) or generate text ideas.

Fourth, we have a 'text to video' tool, which means AI uses text to generate video content.

In the next section, we will look at applications and tools that use these methods. Let's take a look at some of the top AI design tools available today!

AI design tools, apps and software

Now that you know how AI can benefit designers, it's time to analyze the best design tools. An AI design tool is any software application or platform that uses AI techniques and algorithms to assist designers.

As Adobe Senior Director of Product Analytics Sid Shah puts it, 'Good AI makes life easier. Great AI doesn't get in the way.' You'll find that the various AI tools on this list do exactly that.

Here is a list of the top AI design tools available today.

ChatGPT

OpenAI's ChatGPT is an AI chatbot, or natural language processing engine. Think of it like an autocomplete tool, but 1,000 times faster – it's trained on massive amounts of data.

The latest version, ChatGPT-4 , in particular , offers advanced techniques and larger training data. It generates conversational, coherent, and contextual responses. In short, its natural language makes it easy to ask questions (or get AI responses) about a wide variety of design topics.

For example, you can ask it to come up with design ideas (based on the huge database it was trained on). Or you can research things, create prototypes, etc.

Outstanding features:

Extremely easy to use for multiple purposes
Provide conversational text feedback
Continuous research and development as it addresses potential biases and concerns
Its responses are ethically and responsibly guaranteed.

ChatGPT Plus (ChatGPT-4) costs $20/month. You can use older versions of ChatGPT for free.

This short video talks about how designers can use ChatGPT :

MidJourney

While ChatGPT focuses on text, MidJourney is an AI art generator from Imagine Art. It turns text into images. This allows designers to explore the endless potential of AI-generated art for use in prototypes, references, and more.

Outstanding features:

Easy to use AI to transform words into amazing images
'Image Remix' can turn real-life photos into stylized works of art
Features like 'Inpainting' and 'Expand Image' completely eliminate design steps

MidJourney has a variety of pricing models, including three subscription plans: $10/month, $30/month, and $60/month. You can also opt for an annual plan for a 20% discount, priced at $8/month, $24/month, and $48/month.

DALL-E 2

OpenAI's DALL-E-2 is another AI system that generates photorealistic images and artwork from text descriptions. DALL-E supports a variety of drawing styles.

Outstanding features:

Images can be expanded beyond the original canvas to create larger compositions
Easy to use and very user friendly
Users can create variations for images while keeping the original image style intact.

DALL-E 2 is free to try and users are allocated a few free credits each month. Designers who use it regularly will need to purchase credits. DALL-E 2 generates 4 images for each text prompt to earn one credit. Currently, the price is $15 for 115 credits, which is about $0.13/prompt or $0.0325/image.

Canva

Launched in 2013, Canva is an online visual design and communication platform. Canva was created with the aim of empowering everyone to create and publish content. With the advancement of AI, Canva has become a leader in the design industry.

Outstanding features:

Thousands of custom templates
Easy-to-use tools that rival Adobe's classic Photoshop like Magic Eraser and Edit
'Magic Resize' automatically resizes any graphic to another size, eliminating tedious resizing steps

Canva has a free version that includes a large library of vector graphics, templates, and stock images, while Canva Pro can be licensed to teams for $12.99/month and unlocks premium graphics, images, and features.

Jasper.ai

Jasper.ai offers an AI-powered text-to-image artwork creation tool that creates photorealistic photos and illustrations. AI also has a writing tool for creating copy, which can be used for banner ads, instructional content, and more.

Outstanding features:

Plagiarism checker and revision history
Customize brand voice, like 'Boss Mode'
Multiple copy templates to guide your AI ads

Jasper.ai has three popular pricing plans, divided into Creator ($39/month), Teams ($99/month), and Business (custom pricing). The plans offer a trial to test out the AI tool before committing.

Adobe Sensei

Adobe has built a Generative AI feature into all Adobe products and the Creative Cloud. This feature helps provide insights for decision making, helping designers better manage data and uncover useful insights. For example, Adobe Sensei analyzes text to understand the tone of a document and summarizes it.

Outstanding features:

Accelerate business processes through content intelligence
An integral part of Lightroom, this feature streamlines photo editing.
Provides a wide range of AI features across various design software

Adobe Sensei is not a software as it is embedded in Adobe Creative Cloud. With an Adobe app or Creative Cloud subscription, one can take advantage of this powerful AI feature.

Adobe Firefly

Like Adobe Sensei, Adobe Firefly exists in over 20 Adobe products. Firefly is Adobe's Generative AI, which allows users to turn simple text prompts into images, change fonts, replace colors, and more. With Adobe Generative Fill, graphic designers can select an area, enter a prompt, and the AI will fill that space with whatever is required. For example, you can select the ground and turn it from grass to snow.

Outstanding features:

Convert text to image and color
Adjust text through various styling and texture effects
Generative Recoloring

As part of Creative Cloud, Adobe Firefly is built into the platform and comes with every active subscription.

Khroma

This AI design tool focuses on color. Designers use Khroma to quickly and easily find and save color combinations or explore new color palettes based on their preferences. To start, designers choose 50 colors from a variety of shades and tones, and Khroma takes them from there.

Outstanding features:

Algorithms are personalized to users and their preferences
Create an infinite color palette curated for each user

Khroma is free.

AutoDraw

This design tool from Google is dedicated to drawing. It suggests drawings based on a Machine Learning algorithm and basically guesses what the user is trying to draw. This AI task is driven by fun and its creators are simply trying to make drawing more fun and accessible.

Outstanding features:

Predicting drawings based on user drawing behavior
Online AI tools accessible from any device

Autodraw is free and does not require any downloads or credit cards.

Let's Enhance

If you need to enhance or upgrade your images, Let's Enhance is the AI tool for you. It can sharpen images and improve their quality while creating AI artwork in just one click. Designers and marketers find it useful because clearer images increase conversion rates and before this AI tool, fixing low-resolution photos was a pain.

Outstanding features:

AI Upgrades and Smart Improvements
Remove compression and increase resolution
Adjust color and tone
Create high quality AI art

One can try Let's Enhance for free once through their 5 credits free offer. After that, it costs around $12/month for 100 credits per month and the plans expand from there.

VisualEyes

UI/UX for designers is more important than ever as more content becomes digital. That means companies must optimize how users interact with content on screen – by recording their eye patterns and behaviors. VisualEyes is an AI solution for UI/UX. With 93% predictive accuracy, this AI simulates eye tracking studies and preference tests so designers can optimize their designs.

Outstanding features:

Replace time-consuming and expensive eye tracking studies with Heat Maps
Unique clear points provide detailed information to users
Compatible with leading design software like Figma and Adobe XD

VisualEyes does not have a free trial and their pricing model is customized for each user.

Looka Logo Maker

Every designer knows that logo design is one of the most difficult projects, until Looka comes along. This AI-powered platform designs logos and helps designers build brands in just minutes.

Outstanding features:

Generate hundreds of AI logo templates to choose from
Easy-to-use editor to tweak AI-generated logos to match your vision

The basic logo package starts at $20, but Looka recommends purchasing a Brand Kit subscription for $96/year to get AI-generated templates and more business assets, like email signatures.

Synthesia

As the #1 AI video platform, Synthesia promises professional videos in 15 minutes. The platform leverages AI to turn text into speech in over 120 languages and allows users to choose from over 140 diverse avatars to star in their videos. With no video equipment, filming, or editing required, Synthesia is a great AI solution for designers tasked with video projects.

Outstanding features:

Beginner-friendly AI enables one-click video editing
AI Text to Speech in Multiple Languages
Includes avatar creation features, so you can create custom AI avatars for yourself and/or your team

Synthesia lets site visitors create videos for free, then offers affordable plans starting at just $30/month.

Learn more about Synthesia in this short video about the top 5 AI tools for designers:

Description

Descript is an all-in-one tool focused on podcast design and production . It helps users write, record, transcribe, edit, collaborate, and even share videos and podcasts.

Outstanding features:

AI-powered transcription, subtitles, and captions save hours of editing
Remove redundant words to clean up your videos naturally and easily
Overwrite allows natural sounding voice copying

Designers can use various AI features from Descript for free for 1 hour per month, after which premium plans start at $12/month.

WellSaid Labs

Recording voiceovers used to be a time-consuming project for content creators, but today, AI can generate voices in real time. WellSaid Labs is a leading AI voice platform that makes voice production easier, faster, and cheaper.

Outstanding features: