The digital workflow is obsolete
The end of abstraction, and the start of design as delivery
For decades we’ve lived inside a comfortable, consistent, somewhat fictional workflow. Design happens over here, code happens over there, and the workflow is the bridge that connects the two of them together. And that’s a process that makes sense when translating between visual artifacts and functional implementation was slow, messy, and human. Designers need a canvas. Developers need specs. The workflow is the glue.
But that’s a collapsing model now. We don’t have a linear process - canvas to code. We have a more continuous loop. We’d already started that process through the expansion of design systems and other orchestration platforms. But now AI interpreters can take structured design input from those resources and generate interfaces that are visually and functionally coherent. The canvas might still exist, but it’s no longer right at the center of the work. We had a handoff layer that defined digital product delivery, but now it’s dissolving.
That digital workflow isn’t ending because design has stopped mattering. It’s ending because design has become the vital infrastructure itself.
The canvas wasn’t the work
The canvas was an abstraction. It was a simulation of something that would eventually be built somewhere else. It existed because design and engineering spoke different languages. Designers made intent visible. Developers then translated that intent into working structure and logic. And we repeated the ritual handoff in order to reconcile two worlds that couldn’t speak to each other fluently.
The more those systems have matured, the more that separation is artificial. Tokens, semantic components, structured data, give us a shared language and more robust guidance. A well defined design system doesn’t need to be redrawn in code - it is code - and it can be read as such.
That’s not the death of the canvas. It’s time for an evolution. A non-abstracted canvas that’s connected directly to live systems, is invaluable. We’re human - we still think in terms of visual representation in order to think, collaborate, and refine our ideas. But that means a canvas has to be an actual truth - the real thing - and not a pretense. The abstraction is what needs to die.
We don’t need fewer canvases. We need more honest ones.
Figma’s fight to preserve the fiction
And this is where things might start to get uncomfortable. Figma - much-loved, brilliant, ubiquitous - has built an empire on making a canvas abstraction more accessible and easier to use. Modern product teams use it because it allows design to feel close to reality without ever being real. That was Figma’s superpower.
But now we live in a world where systems that underly design and code can interact directly. Which makes the abstraction less necessary. Which is a threat - to Figma’s business model, not to design itself.
It’s not surprising that Figma’s AI strategy seems focused on reinforcing the centrality of its own canvas. Auto-generated design screens (which then need to be “auto-generated” again into code), AI-driven component suggestions, natural language layout tools - they’re building features to keep you inside Figma.
These are impressive capabilities. But they also serve Figma’s strategic purpose - encourage designers to do more within Figma rather than reach out to collaborate directly with the systems that actually deliver products.
I don’t believe that’s malice. It’s just sensible economics. Figma’s success depends on it remaining the hub of the workflow. But what workflow? As AI and structured design systems collapse the distance between design intent and delivery reality, the workflow itself is evaporating.
We’re not working in a future where working faster within the canvas is the vital factor. It’s about questioning whether we need the canvas at all for much of the work we currently do there.
AI is collapsing the middle layer
AI doesn’t - despite the fears - replace designers or developers. It replaces the abstraction between them. It can interpret structure and make translation unnecessary. We feed design tokens, behavior definitions, rules and guidance into a working interface through orchestration systems.
The value of design isn’t in the mockup - it’s in the metadata, and it’s in the final thing. The design system is design. What was in static screens is in structured definitions - which means it can be interpreted, reasoned, and improved by machines as well as humans.
That can be liberating. It disappears the rote work - redrawing, aligning, re-specifying. Human creativity can switch to the areas it’s most valuable: judgement, craft, and care.
My colleague Carly Stevens said recently that, done well, AI “can free designers to do the jobs they were actually hired for”.
The automation of the mechanical layers doesn’t erase design. It brings it home to its true purpose.
Design is structured input, not static output
The act of defining patterns, constraints, and relationships isn’t pre-delivery work - it is the delivery. Structured systems turn these definitions into executable outcomes.
Design isn’t a set of abstracts handed off to be interpreted. It’s the structured language embedded in the delivery process. The different between “the design” and “the product” becomes semantic. The expression of intent is the same as what’s used to create reality.
This makes design more human. The sense of what’s good instead of just correct is where human excellence will continue to thrive.
Designers will be working after automation. Curating, adjusting, improving what AI systems produce. They’ll guide the system - working as stewards to ensure that what’s delivered is crafted, coherent, and feels alive.
A new creative edge for developers
Developers aren’t losing ground here, either.
When the system can handle assembly, developers get more time to focus on architecture. That means authoring the meta-systems: rules, boundaries and logic that govern AI’s interpretation and execution of design.
It’s not thinking “how do I build that screen from that design?” - the question now is “how do I build the platform to make a thousand screens possible?” It’s a different scale of artistry, and the future of engineering excellence.
Intelligent delivery elevates human roles, rather than necessarily eliminating them. Designers and developers can be genuine co-authors and co-creators of their ecosystem.
What’s next?
The end of the digital workflow shouldn’t mean chaos. It should mean more continuity.
The canvas will be a live view into the reality of the system, not a staging ground for ideas that sit outside it. Delivery needs to become intelligent, contextual, and collaborative.
To thrive here:
Build structured systems. Resources and guidance legible to humans and machines.
Connect canvas to code. Design tools need to be interfaces for living systems, not static artifacts.
Focus on human excellence. Automation can get you to “good” (well, maybe “ok”) faster. Invest human judgement into making it great.
Question your tools. If any platform’s roadmap is pulling you deeper into its own walls, ask who benefits most from that dependence.
The digital workflow that we’ve known was a bridge between silos. But the silos are disappearing. We don’t have product pipelines, we have shared environments of systems and craft.
Design isn’t a stage before delivery.
Design is delivery.
Further reading
Figma’s Q3, recently LinkedIn post, Nov 2025.