State of AI in design – 2026 report (stateofaidesign.com)

The "AI in Design 2026" report reveals a transformative shift in the design industry, where designers are not just experimenting with AI but are actively rebuilding their workflows around it. By surveying over 900 designers across 60 countries and conducting interviews with industry leaders, the report highlights how AI is reshaping practices, tool usage, and team dynamics. Designers are engaging with double the number of off-the-shelf AI tools compared to 2025, leading to quicker ideation, prototyping, and even coding, with half reporting the deployment of AI-generated code in production environments. This evolution carries significant implications for the AI/ML community, signaling a need for updated organizational structures and performance metrics to accommodate the blurring of traditional design roles and responsibilities. While many teams are embracing this new creativity fueled by AI, concerns are raised about maintaining design quality and collaboration as the landscape rapidly shifts. Continuous findings, including case studies from leading companies like Stripe and Shopify, will be released throughout the year, emphasizing the urgency for adapting to these rapid changes in the design ecosystem.