Wall Street seems to think Anthropic’s new AI design tool could be a serious threat to Figma and other software.
On Friday, Anthropic announced Claude Design, a new tool that lets users create polished visuals like slide decks, app prototypes, and marketing one-pagers using simple text prompts. The tool is powered by Claude Opus 4.7 and is rolling out as a research preview to Claude Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise subscribers gradually throughout today.
It works by letting users describe what they want in plain language prompts. They can also upload codebases and design files, allowing Claude to build a design system that automatically applies a team’s colors, typography, and other design components across projects.
Claude then generates an initial version of the design, which users can refine through conversation, inline comments, direct edits, or custom sliders built by Claude.
Projects can be exported as PDFs, PowerPoints, or into Canva. Once completed, designs can also be packaged for Claude Code to build into working projects.
Anthropic said the tool has already been used to create realistic prototypes, pitch decks, and marketing materials. The company is pitching it as a way for experienced designers to explore ideas more quickly, while also giving founders and product managers without a design background a way to bring their ideas to life.
“Claude Design gives designers room to explore widely and everyone else a way to produce visual work,” the company said in a press release.
Anthropic is also emphasizing that the tool could be used to complement other products rather than completely replace them.
“We’re excited to build on our collaboration with Claude, making it seamless for people to bring ideas and drafts from Claude Design into Canva, where they instantly become fully editable and collaborative designs ready to refine, share, and publish,” Canva’s CEO said in Anthropic’s press release.
It should be noted that LLMs have been incredibly unreliable when it comes to generating visual elements. Yes, image generators can be impressive on first glance, but when a user starts trying to edit individual elements, things can quickly fall apart. We will have to wait and see how well Claude Design pulls off its stated purpose.
Still, Wall Street appears to see it as competition for the design industry.
Figma’s stock fell about 7% on Friday following the announcement. The company is widely considered the dominant player in UI and UX design for websites and apps, with an estimated 80% to 90% marketshare.
The timing is notable. Just two months ago, Figma launched a feature called Code to Canvas, which lets users convert code generated by tools like Claude Code into editable designs inside Figma.
Adding to the tension, Anthropic Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger stepped down from Figma’s board just days ago amid speculation the company was gearing up to launch a design tool.
Figma did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Gizmodo.
