UI AI is useful when it sits in your existing canvas or emits code you can actually merge.
Sensible stack
- Figma + native AI / plugins — stay where designers already work; generate frames, variants, cleanup
- Prompt-to-code experiments (Stitch-class tools, Framer AI, etc.) — great for throwaway flows; check export quality before you bet a design system on them
- Image models for mock texture — GPT Image 2 leads the AA text-to-image / image-editing boards as of 2026-08-02; use for mood, not pixel-perfect systems
Rule
Prototype fast in design tools. Ship components from a repo with a coding agent (Opus 5 / GPT-5.6 Sol + Cursor or Claude Code). Don’t confuse a pretty generated screen with a maintainable design system.