Artificial Intelligence is changing the game across industries. It is not only helpful in generating content or plans. It is already creating astonishing visuals and designs. AI is not the future anymore. It is the present and it is indeed a present to the designing community. As AI-driven tools continue to evolve, they are transforming the creative landscape and redefining how designers approach concepts, visuals, and production.
Many upcoming designers worry about the rise of AI in the design industry. Some believe that the AI engines are making designers redundant and reduce the reliance on their skills. While this concern exists, it does not represent the complete reality. AI is reshaping the industry, but it is not eliminating the role of a skilled designer.
The truth is, AI is not replacing designers. AI is only replacing poor quality and unskilled designers. AI has become a creative partner and a productivity booster. When used strategically, AI enhances creativity, speeds up design workflows, and supports professionals in delivering higher-quality work in less time.
At Ideamax Institute of Design, we enable students to become leading designers by training them in conventional designing courses and also in integrating the AI as a part of the designing workflow. With a future-focused curriculum, we ensure students gain strong design fundamentals along with expertise in AI-powered tools that the industry increasingly demands.
The following AI tools are important to learn and master in 2026 to become a leading designer. Whether you’re into graphic designing, animation, UI/UX, or branding or communication design, you will need these tools to become better at your art. Mastering these tools helps students stay competitive, build stronger portfolios, and adapt to the rapidly changing design ecosystem.
Adobe Firefly – Adobe’s Workhorse
Adobe is expanding its creative dominance, and Firefly is the perfect innovation fueling this growth. With the launch of Firefly, the already powerful Adobe creative ecosystem has become stronger than ever. This AI engine is now integrated into Photoshop, Illustrator, and Adobe Express, making advanced design tasks easier, faster, and more intuitive.
Adobe Firefly allows you to generate high-quality images from simple text prompts and create complex vector graphics without spending hours on manual work. You can also remove, modify, or extend image backgrounds seamlessly. The popular one-click recolor option from Illustrator is now available across multiple Adobe tools, helping designers experiment with styles and palettes more effortlessly. All these AI-powered features enable designers to enhance their creativity and turn rough sketches into polished, professional designs.
If you’re planning to pursue graphic design courses in Coimbatore, mastering Adobe Firefly has become essential. At Ideamax Institute of Design, we offer comprehensive design programs that teach students how to integrate AI tools like Firefly into their creative workflow. Our curriculum ensures you stay ahead of industry trends and build a strong portfolio powered by both traditional design skills and modern AI-driven techniques.
Midjourney – Dynamic GenAI Tool
Midjourney is more than just an editing tool—it is a powerful creative assistant for designers when inspiration runs low. Whether you are developing concept art, exploring visual directions, or building moodboards for branding and storytelling, Midjourney becomes your go-to companion for fresh, innovative ideas.
This AI tool can generate hyper-realistic visuals, human-level artistic styles, and rapid design iterations. Its ability to produce stunning imagery makes it especially valuable for professionals in fashion, the gaming industry, animation, and other visually intensive fields.
If you want to speed up your creative workflow or enhance your output quality, Midjourney is the ideal solution. It is particularly effective for:
- Fashion concept sketching
- Product design ideas
- Poster and campaign concepts
- Environment and character artwork
- Animation visualization
- Branding and design concepts
With Midjourney, designers can move faster from idea to execution, experiment with multiple styles, and elevate their creative process effortlessly.
Canva Magic Studio – Your New Creative Companion
Gone are the days when people underestimated Canva designers. Canva is no longer just a beginner-friendly tool—it has grown into a complete creative suite trusted by professionals worldwide. With the introduction of the Magic Studio suite, Canva now offers advanced AI-powered features designed to handle fast, high-volume design tasks with ease.
As designers, we often spend countless hours perfecting layouts. Magic Studio simplifies this by automatically generating layout options for quick customization. Features like Magic Eraser and Magic Expand allow you to edit images seamlessly, removing objects, extending backgrounds, and polishing visuals in just a few clicks.
In addition to these tools, Canva now offers AI-generated templates that help you design faster without compromising quality. With simple adjustments and brand-specific tweaks, you can create polished, professional designs using your preferred colors, fonts, and visual style. The instant resize option further speeds up your workflow by adapting your social media creatives to multiple formats within seconds.
While Magic Studio includes both image and video generation capabilities, the AI model is still evolving and not yet ideal for producing high-end, hyper-realistic visuals. However, it performs well for moderate-level image generation and everyday design needs.
Figma AI – The AI for UI/UX
UI/UX design has now evolved into an AI-first discipline. With modern tools, entire UI layouts can be generated from just a few prompts. Figma, one of the most widely used design platforms, now includes powerful built-in AI features that help designers transform ideas into prototypes within minutes.
Figma’s AI can auto-generate wireframes almost instantly, allowing designers to begin their creative process with ease. Instead of building every component from scratch, these AI-generated foundations speed up production and help designers complete projects far more efficiently. Figma AI can also convert hand-drawn sketches into digital screens, create responsive components, and automate repetitive tasks—making the design workflow smoother and significantly faster.
If you are planning to study UI/UX designing courses in Coimbatore, gaining strong knowledge of Figma AI and its capabilities is essential. Mastering these tools will help you stay competitive, design smarter, and adapt to the rapidly evolving digital design industry.
Kittl AI – The Typography AI
Kittl fills an important gap in the design industry. It has quickly become the go-to tool for creatives who want to produce stunning typography artwork and merchandise designs. Today, graphic designers, T-shirt printing brands, typography enthusiasts, and branding studios are rapidly adopting Kittl as a part of their everyday design workflow.
With Kittl, you can generate and use beautiful AI-powered typography that can be applied directly to your products or creative projects. Its logo and badge design tools are among the most popular features. Kittl is especially known for its vintage, retro, and bold design styles, instant vector creation, and high-quality print-ready outputs — all of which make it a powerful asset for any designer.
Other notable tools that enhance the design process include Runway, Google ImageFX + Gemini, Sora, Davinci, and more. These AI-driven platforms significantly speed up your workflow, improve your creative output, and help reduce the average turnaround time for clients.
Why AI Skills are Important for Designers in 2026
At Ideamax Institute of Design, we train students to think beyond just using tools. We encourage them to rethink the very concept of design and develop a mindset that blends creativity, strategy, and technology. Every designing course at Ideamax Institute of Design integrates AI into all stages of the curriculum, ensuring students are prepared for the future of the creative industry.
Our training includes:
Hands-on practical sessions
Real-time projects with actual deliverable
Mastery of industry-relevant design tools
Guidance from continuous, expert mentors
Portfolio-building assignments that strengthen your professional profile
Book a free consultation today to learn more about our Graphic Designing Courses in Coimbatore and take the first step toward becoming a future-ready designer.