At its annual Config conference, Figma introduced groundbreaking features allowing design and code to coexist in a single collaborative environment, powered by AI agents and real-time workflows.
- Code and design interact side-by-side in Figma’s new Code Layers feature
- Real-time collaboration eliminates historical silos between developers and designers
- AI agents simplify code generation and integration in design workflows
What happened
At Config 2026, Figma launched new capabilities that integrate coding directly into its flagship design canvas, called Code Layers. This allows users to generate, import, and edit code alongside design elements without switching apps. Teams can collaborate in real time on design prototypes that include live code, motion effects, and generative workflows.
Figma demonstrated how AI agents empower users to prompt and create code seamlessly, while complex visual effects like shading, perspective depth, and full-motion animation enrich the creative process. The platform also supports simultaneous editing and viewing, further enhancing communication between designers and developers.
Why it matters
Historically, design and development workflows have been siloed, causing inefficiencies, miscommunication, and slower iteration cycles. Figma’s approach to unifying these steps within a single interface enables teams to experiment, prototype, and build collaboratively, accelerating creative ideation and product delivery.
Embedding AI-driven coding agents and real-time multiplayer collaboration transforms code from a separate technical aspect into a material of design exploration itself. This broadens the role of both designers and developers and helps enterprises break down functional silos, improving cross-disciplinary productivity in software and digital product creation.
What to watch next
Figma will likely continue advancing AI capabilities and collaboration tools to further blur the line between design and development. Observers should monitor how these integrations impact workflow adoption among customer enterprises and whether they lead to measurable gains in innovation speed and team alignment.
Additionally, competitive responses from other design and development platforms will be important to track, as they may adopt similar real-time, AI-driven features to keep pace. How well Figma scales these complex collaborative functions while maintaining speed and usability will also be a key factor influencing market leadership.