Indian Product Builders Lead in AI Optimism, but Collaboration and Design Quality Emerge as Key Challenges: Figma Research

Bengaluru, October 15, 2026: Artificial intelligence is transforming how digital products are designed, developed and delivered, with Indian professionals demonstrating greater enthusiasm for the changing nature of work than their counterparts in the United States and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), according to new research presented by Figma at Config India 2026.

The findings, presented during the company’s flagship conference at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), highlight a fundamental shift in the responsibilities of designers, developers, product managers and other professionals involved in building digital products.

While AI-powered tools are helping teams work faster and take on responsibilities beyond their traditional roles, the research also identifies growing concerns around fragmented workflows, unclear ownership, inconsistent output quality and the difficulty of creating distinctive digital experiences.

The study draws on 507 responses from India, forming part of a broader global survey of more than 1,800 professionals conducted between August 17 and September 16, 2026.

Unlike research focused exclusively on designers, the study examined professionals across eight roles involved in digital product development, providing a broader perspective on how AI is reshaping individual responsibilities and team collaboration.

India emerges as a leading market for AI enthusiasm

One of the most notable findings was the comparatively high level of optimism among Indian professionals regarding changes in the workplace.

According to Figma, 65% of Indian product builders expressed excitement about how their work is evolving, compared with 44% of respondents in the US and EMEA.

The research suggests that professionals in India are increasingly embracing AI-powered development tools, expanding their skills and exploring responsibilities that previously belonged to specialized teams.

The findings also indicate that enthusiasm is translating into measurable workplace benefits.

Around 83% of Indian respondents reported improved productivity or efficiency, while 82% said their teams were moving faster from initial ideas to finished products.

Additionally, 87% said shifting professional roles had positively affected their teams.

These findings suggest that AI adoption is changing not only the speed of product development but also the range of tasks that individual professionals are able to undertake.

Traditional job boundaries are disappearing

A central theme of the presentation was the gradual breakdown of traditional responsibilities within digital product development teams.

Historically, product development followed a relatively structured process. Product managers identified requirements, designers developed user interfaces and experiences, and engineers translated those designs into functioning applications.

AI-assisted development tools are increasingly challenging that model.

The research presentation highlighted how professionals are now participating in activities beyond their original areas of specialization, particularly in design, product strategy and creative problem-solving.

Rather than being restricted to a specific stage of development, individuals are becoming more involved in identifying problems, evaluating solutions and contributing to the final product experience.

One particularly significant finding was that 77% of non-designers regularly participate in at least one design-related activity.

The presentation also indicated that 54% of non-designers engage in digital product design activities, including user experience and interface-related work.

This shift suggests that design is increasingly becoming a shared responsibility rather than a function limited to specialized design teams.

The research identified AI adoption and professional upskilling as important drivers of these changes, with employees motivated both by emerging technology and the opportunity to develop new capabilities.

AI improves productivity, but creates new quality challenges

Although AI is helping teams produce work faster, the presentation emphasized that greater output does not automatically translate into better products.

As AI-generated designs, prototypes and code become more common, product teams face the challenge of reviewing, refining and improving material created by automated systems.

The research presentation highlighted concerns about the quality of outputs received from others and the increasing amount of time professionals spend correcting or improving work.

It also raised a broader concern: when teams rely on similar AI tools and generation patterns, digital products may begin to look and function alike.

This creates a new challenge for companies seeking differentiation in competitive markets.

As routine development tasks become easier to automate, design judgment, creativity, product thinking and attention to detail may become more important.

The presentation emphasized that AI can accelerate the creation process, but producing exceptional digital experiences still requires human judgment and a clear understanding of user needs.

For businesses, this distinction could become increasingly significant as AI-powered tools make basic application development more accessible to startups and established enterprises alike.

Collaboration becomes a growing challenge as teams work faster

The study also identified an emerging contradiction in AI-enabled workplaces.

While individual professionals are becoming more productive, the systems used to coordinate work across teams are not necessarily evolving at the same pace.

According to the research, 65% of Indian respondents said increasingly siloed work makes it harder to understand the bigger picture of what their teams are building.

As employees work with individual AI assistants, coding agents and personalized workflows, important information can remain confined to separate tools, conversations and workspaces.

This fragmentation can make it difficult for teams to understand why particular decisions were made, how different components connect and whether everyone is working toward the same objective.

The presentation also highlighted concerns about unclear responsibilities as professional roles increasingly overlap.

These challenges suggest that organizations adopting AI need to invest not only in individual productivity tools but also in systems that improve transparency, communication and shared decision-making.

Without effective collaboration, faster individual output may create additional coordination and review work elsewhere in the development process.

81% of Indian builders see design as a common language

Despite these challenges, the research identified design as an increasingly important mechanism for connecting professionals across different roles.

According to Figma, 81% of Indian respondents agreed that design is becoming a common language that enables teams to align around ideas.

The finding reflects the growing role of visual communication in product development, particularly when teams include designers, engineers, product managers, business stakeholders and AI-assisted development workflows.

Design can help communicate not only what a product should look like, but also the reasoning behind decisions, the problems being addressed and the experience intended for users.

As more professionals participate in design-related activities, shared visual environments may help organizations maintain alignment even as individual responsibilities become less clearly defined.

The research suggests that the future of product development will depend on balancing faster execution with stronger collaboration and more deliberate design decisions.

Demand for design and development tools expected to increase

The presentation also indicated that Indian product builders expect to expand their use of digital creation tools over the coming year.

More than 80% of respondents anticipated increasing their use of design and development tools over the next 12 months.

The findings point to continued demand for platforms that support AI-assisted workflows, collaborative product development and integration between design and engineering.

However, the presentation also suggested that technology adoption alone will not determine success.

Organizations will need to strengthen their design capabilities, improve communication between teams and develop processes for evaluating the quality of AI-assisted work.

As the ability to generate software becomes more widely available, competitive differentiation may increasingly depend on how effectively companies identify user needs and translate them into meaningful product experiences.

Global Business Line questions research methodology at Config India

During the discussion following the presentation, Global Business Line raised questions about the composition of the research sample, the types of companies surveyed, organizational size and the research team involved in conducting the study.

In response, a Figma representative explained that the research was designed to include a mix of organizations rather than focus exclusively on startups or large enterprises.

The principal eligibility requirement was that participating organizations needed to work with some form of digital interface.

The representative indicated that this could include major technology companies as well as organizations in other industries developing digital products or customer-facing digital experiences.

When asked about the representation of startups and smaller companies within the sample, the representative said the exact breakdown was not immediately available.

The discussion also addressed whether the study had captured team sizes within participating organizations. The representative indicated that company size had been considered, but a specific team-size breakdown was not available during the exchange.

Responding to a question about the internal research function, the representative described a team of approximately 25 people working across different areas of research, from broader market and future-focused studies to product development and detailed user experience improvements.

The exchange provided additional context on the scope of the study while identifying areas where more detailed sample information would be useful for interpreting the findings.

India’s AI-driven product ecosystem enters a new phase

The findings presented at Config India 2026 point to a broader transformation in how digital products are created.

AI is enabling professionals to move beyond conventional job descriptions, accelerating development and expanding participation in activities previously handled by specialized teams.

For India, the relatively high levels of optimism and reported productivity gains suggest strong interest in adopting these new ways of working.

However, the research also highlights the limitations of focusing exclusively on speed.

As organizations produce more digital products with AI assistance, the ability to maintain quality, preserve creative differentiation and coordinate work across teams is likely to become increasingly important.

The findings reinforce a central message from the presentation: while AI can make building easier, creating meaningful and distinctive products still requires design expertise, collaboration and human judgment.

For Indian startups, technology enterprises and global capability centres, the next phase of AI adoption may therefore be defined not simply by how quickly products can be built, but by how effectively teams work together to build the right products.