The strongest AI case may be the awkward middle
A randomized controlled trial from Figma found meaningful time and ease improvements, especially for complex design tasks and product managers.
faster overall design work in Figma’s controlled study of Figma Make
AI appears most valuable where the work is difficult enough to benefit from momentum, but structured enough to evaluate.
The Story
Figma reports that a randomized controlled trial with 100 participants found design work was 20% faster and 16% easier with Figma Make; product managers saw particularly strong gains in speed and perceived ease.
The nuance is more interesting than the headline. Designers saw the clearest benefit on the most challenging task, while simpler scenarios showed less significant improvement. That points to augmentation, not blanket acceleration. ([figma.com](https://www.figma.com/blog/measuring-time-savings-from-figma-make/?utm_source=openai))
For a multidisciplinary studio, this is a useful boundary: deploy AI where it helps people get through complexity, ambiguity or the first difficult version—not where it merely adds another way to make easy things noisy.
Studio Wensday Angle
The right question is where AI reduces friction without flattening judgment.