Business · 2026-10-09

Speed Without Direction: How Teams Should Use AI, According to Figma

Figma advises leaders not just to speed up work with AI, but to create conditions where teams learn, try new things, and are allowed to make mistakes.

✨ Why speed alone doesn't help

AI can really speed up team work, but that doesn't automatically mean better results. Speed is only valuable when a team is moving in the right direction.

The authors suggest a different goal: use AI not only to ship faster, but also to explore more options, work through edge cases before making a decision, and refine the details so the product stands out.

📌 How to make AI use a habit for the whole team

Individual AI skills are not enough. For AI to be used across the whole team, leaders should make learning and experimentation a shared practice. The article suggests four steps:

Create dedicated spaces for training led by colleagues.

Bring AI into the team's existing workflows.

Encourage people to share what they are trying, even when an experiment fails.

Get hands-on with the tools yourself and show your own work in progress.

🔹 What leaders say

Ian Silber, Head of Product Design at OpenAI, says that when it looks like leadership only cares about speed, that is a bad sign. In his view, the team should clearly understand that speed is not the goal, and that shipping poor work quickly is not acceptable.

Gui Seiz, Director of AI Product Design at Figma, says he often hears people say they have no time to play with AI tools because they have deliverables. He believes one of the first things a manager can do is give the team time to experiment, make mistakes, and figure things out.

🔸 Where to read more

The article mentions the Sightlines series. The authors also recommend a video with Figma's Noah Levin on building connected AI workflows from idea to release, and Figma AI guides and resources for getting started at every stage. However, the article does not include direct links, so none are listed here.

Sources: 🔗 Figma Blog