Adobe is taking on Figma with a new prototype builder tool in Firefly.
A prototype, in design terms, is a clickable mockup of an app or website, built before any real code exists. Figma is the tool many design teams already use for that job, so putting a rival builder inside Firefly is a direct challenge to a product with a loyal user base.
The prototype builder is part of a wider push. Adobe is also bringing AI agents (software that carries out multi-step tasks on a user's behalf, rather than answering one prompt at a time) and new creative tools to Photoshop, Premiere, and Firefly.
The pairing is the interesting part. Photoshop and Premiere are Adobe's long-established image and video editors. Firefly is where the company has put its generative AI. Adding a prototyping tool to Firefly suggests Adobe wants that product to be more than an image generator, and to be a place where design work starts and is shaped, not only decorated.
The prototype builder is also a different kind of bet from the agent features. Agents make existing apps faster. A prototype builder tries to pull in people who currently do that work elsewhere.
Whether designers switch will depend on how well the tool handles the unglamorous parts of prototyping, such as sharing work with teammates and passing it on to developers. Those are the habits that keep teams in Figma, and no amount of AI polish changes them on its own.