A deep dive into the 12 best AI design tools for 2024
Author: Mary Mattingly
Oh, the joys of design work! There you are, yet again, trying to remove the background from an image. It’s like playing a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Make a mistake? Start over. And let's not even talk about the cramps in your hand or the eye strain from glaring at the screen. Feeling that headache creeping in yet?
Source: Giphy
But hold up! Remember when you signed up to be a designer?
You envisioned unleashing your creativity, not getting bogged down with tedious photo edits and endless formatting. You must've thought, "There’s got to be a better way, right?”
Bingo! Enter the world of artificial intelligence (AI) – your new design sidekick. While you might have been giving AI the cold shoulder, it’s time to embrace it. AI isn’t just about robots taking over the world; it’s here to turbocharge your creative process. Imagine spending more time brainstorming brilliant ideas and less time on those mind-numbing tasks. Yes, that’s the dream!
And guess what? You can kiss goodbye to stress. No more endless hours trying to nail that perfect design. But hey, not all AI tools are created equal. You need the right arsenal. That’s why we’ve dived deep into the digital toolbox and picked out the crème de la crème of AI design tools for 2024.
Ready to revolutionize the way you design? Let’s roll!
Disclaimer: The information below is accurate as of July 29, 2024.
Table of Contents
Don’t be shy — these tools won’t bite you. 🤭
They’re all super user-friendly. And the only thing they want is to help you streamline the design process by automating mundane or repetitive tasks such as removing backgrounds. Promise.
But who are they?
See their brief bio in this graphic.
They might look similar on the surface, but all these AI tools have different use cases.
Some tools, like Ceros, are for designers that want to craft interactive web experiences by snapping their fingers. While DreamStudio is an AI image generation tool that you can use to craft the most exquisite images.
Besides, we wouldn’t be good hosts if we didn’t cover this. 😉 You’re invited to explore these differences further in the content that follows.
What makes these AI design tools tick? What’s the unique trait that makes them special?
Well, we have the answers. And, since we’re good hosts, we’re gonna share our findings with you.
Something must’ve caught your eye, right? But don’t jump the gun just yet. You don’t need to make a decision now.
Wait until you read more about each of these tools. 🫷
Discover more about what makes these awesome AI design tools tick, like standout capabilities, limitations, and top features, in the following sections.
Let’s go!
Ceros revolutionizes the way teams create content.
It's not just about speeding through tasks; it's about empowering your team to produce high-quality content faster and more efficiently than ever before.
With Ceros, you're equipped with a dynamic platform that transforms the content creation process, making your projects not only quicker to complete but also more impactful. 🔥
Ceros is like a multi-layered cake. It’s not just one tool, but a comprehensive platform that empowers you to create, collaborate, and captivate.
Finally, your interactive content creation workflow can live in one platform, with tools like Editor, which helps you create more content easily; MarkUp, the annotation tool that simplifies feedback, and Studio, the one with the ideas that’ll drive more sales.
It almost feels too good to be true! But it is.
Besides, it’s efficient and intuitive. Just what you need to create content faster and scale it out.
You also don’t need to be a master of design to use it. Ceros has plenty of templates that do the heavy lifting for you.
So, design newbies, don’t be afraid to use Ceros! It’ll make your content stand out from the crowd and your brand shine bright. ⭐
People are pleased with this feature. Some say, “Our graphics firm can do their piece while we are editing, and we can review it together online.”
Marketers aiming to dazzle with assets like dynamic ads, designers eager to craft interactive web experiences and more, plus those who might not have coding chops but have big creative ideas.
We keep our prices a secret. But you can contact us for a personalized quote. Or request a demo here.
You have an image inside your head of how you want an unedited photo to look. So, you open Photoshop and get to work.
But you can’t quite make your vision a reality. You’re at a loss. You feel despair creeping in…
But then a notification pops onto your screen: Try Firefly, Adobe’s creative, generative AI engine that transforms text descriptions into vivid images. 🤯
Image Source: Adobe Firefly
How does it work? Well, you need to write a description of what you want to create.
Let’s say you want a puppy in a Christmas sweater. 😀 Give the text prompt to Firefly and it will generate a set of images based on the description. It’ll do its best to convert your words to an image.
If you don’t like the result, you can always try again, so don’t lose hope!
Plus, users say that you can “re-style the images with pre-set filters,” which definitely comes in handy when you’re trying to impress your users.
Adobe Firefly is most suitable for designers.
Firefly is currently free on the web or as part of Photoshop.
Want to make your creative process feel like an adventure? Look no further than Midjourney — an AI image generator that’s simply out of this world.
Image Source: Midjourney
Midjourney is a bot for chat apps and Discord. It’s super user-friendly. Plus, you don’t need a degree in science to communicate with it. You can use it without any coding experience.
You simply give it a command by typing /imagine and feeding it a brief text description of what you need.
For example, you might want to generate an elf for your next D&D campaign — Midjourney can quickly bring that character to life.
Just enter the prompt into the right channel and the bot effortlessly generates a set of images based on your prompt. You can then download the image you want — or try again until you create the picture you need.
Midjourney is great for designers, advertisers, and product designers since it allows you to create images in different styles and even various resolutions.
Midjourney used to be free. Now, you’ll have to select one of its four plans. The Basic one costs $10/month.
ChatGPT is…
…If you don’t know by now, where have you been living? Under a rock? It’s the talk of the town — globally!
Let’s refresh your memory.
Image Source: ChatGPT
ChatGPT is THE chatbot. It’s great for generating ideas or writing code. In fact, you can use it for thousands of things!
Create blog content. Learn about a new topic. Generate code. ChatGPT can shed light on every topic or come up with original ideas.
Plus, it won’t feel like you’re talking to a bot. ChatGPT can keep up the convo by answering follow-up questions, rejecting some inappropriate requests, and even admitting its mistakes.
It’s like talking to a friend. And it’s super easy to use!
Moreover, users like that you have “One sleek box where you put your query and get an almost instantaneous answer.”
ChatGPT is suitable for web developers, content writers, and designers.
ChatGPT has a free version. But you won’t have access to DALL-E or more advanced analysis. You’ll have to pay $20/user/month for those features.
Welcome, dearie, to the Magic Studio! 🪄
Canva’s one and only AI tool for creating wonderful design projects.
Image Source: Canva
At its core, Canva is a design software tool for presentations, posters, and social media graphics. It’s Adobe in another form and you can use its vast library of templates (fonts, stock photography, etc.) to craft any design.
But we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to present Magic Studio, Canva’s AI suite.
Like Ceros, Canva has multiple AI-powered tools to help you simplify your design work. Let’s see…
Powered by Stable Diffusion, you have Magic Media for transforming ideas into images and videos. Or Magic Write for generating text in your brand’s voice.
Even Magic Edit, which lets you add, replace, or edit either the whole image or parts of it through a written prompt.
Canva’s Magic Studio is great for content writers and designers because it’s easy to use and has all the necessary tools for improving the design process.
Canva’s free for those who want to design anything on their own. Its Pro plan starts at $14.99/month. Both free and paid plans include Magic Studio, but not all of its tools are available in the freemium version.
Designers know the problem we’re about to describe very well.
Remember how headache-inducing choosing the right color for your design is? But wait — that’s the easiest part. The challenge begins when you have to combine it with another color.
But that’s why Khroma — a simple custom palette generator — exists.
Image Source: Khroma
Khroma delivers on its promise. It produces hundreds of color combinations that mix well together. And takes the guesswork out of your job.
To get started, select your favorite colors. Through the tool’s neural network powered algorithm, you’ll train the tool to generate colors you like. And deny those you hate. 🤮
As a result, you can create infinite color combos. Plus, you can view them as typography, gradient, or custom images.
Khroma is great for graphic, web, and UI/UX designers, as well as artists, bloggers, and illustrators.
Khroma is free to use. No limits, no paid subscription plans.
Say it with me: Hocus Pocus!
Poof! Woah! Look — with those two simple words, you’ve created a mockup in minutes.
Thank Uizard for that.
Image Source: Uizard
Uizard is an AI-powered ideation tool that helps you quickly create mockups, wireframes, and prototypes. So, it’s highly useful if you want to design the user interface of a website.
And you don’t need any design experience to use it.
In fact, users love this: “I love it because it’s really easy to use by people who are not designers. Makes it really easy to bring your ideas to [life] even if you don’t have a budget for a designer.”
You can generate mockups effortlessly through scanned screenshots of sites or apps and text prompts. Oh, and if you like to draw your ideas on paper, say the magic words and Uizard’s AI features will make them a reality.
Uizard is best for designers, web developers, and product managers.
Uizard is free to use, so yay! Its paid subscriptions start at $12/creator/month.
“Can’t you add some text there?” your client asks.
“Sure,” you reply. After all, how hard can it be?
As it turns out, kinda hard. Words elude you. You’re here to play with colors and create shapes. But the client wants text — what to do?
You need a writing assistant like Jasper.
Image Source: Jasper
Jasper is the AI writing assistant that writes the content for you. Simply add the context of your query and Jasper will write a few sentences for you. All in your brand’s voice and style!
Yep. You heard that right. Jasper will speak in your own voice. So that’s a big plus, right?
Use it to write social media posts, blog articles, marketing campaigns, etc. Instead of the ol’ classic Lorem Ipsum stopgap, you fill sections with engaging written text that complements your design.
Jasper is great for industries like e-commerce and retail, real estate, media and publishing, etc. So, marketers, marketing agencies, content writers, web developers, and designers can use it.
Try Jasper in a free seven-day trial. Its Creator plan costs $49/month.
Mokker is not about mockups. Nor is it here to mokker your design skills.
Soooo, what is it? In the words of a G2 reviewer, “[It’s] an innovative AI tool that simplifies [the] process of professional product photos.”
Image Source: Mokker
So, Mokker is about making your product photos stand out. You upload your product photo onto the platform. Mokker uses AI to remove the background.
Then, you select one of its templates from various industries. You can put your product on the podium. Or in a kitchen. The world’s your oyster!
But you can also use your own photos as a reference to create mood boards. Mokker will try to understand each photo’s unique style and apply it to the final product.
But it does so much more than that! The Mokker engine works with any type of product. In return, you’ll get instant results and high-quality images.
Mokker is suitable for product managers and designers.
Mokker has a free plan with access to all templates. When ready, you can try it under the Starter plan at $13/month.
DreamStudio does just that: makes your dreams come true.
Image Source: DreamStudio
With this tool, you can generate any image that lives rent-free in your head. It’s like plucking an idea straight from your mind and making it come true on your screen.
It works by entering text descriptions as prompts in the designated box. It’s not hard to use, as you have all you need to conjure the image of your dreams, such as choosing the style and aspect ratio of the image.
When done, the AI tool will ‘dream’ the image for you — and you can start all over again.
Users say that, “DreamStudio has an easy way to put the text prompts and generates [the] most accurate images. It’s fast in delivering the output.”
This tool is also highly flexible. You create art, photos, and illustrations in any style you like.
DreamStudio is good for designers, web developers, and marketers.
Try DreamStudio for free, no charge. It’s a pay-per-use model, so you need to buy credits to use an image.
Named after the Italian astronomer, Galileo AI is the inventor of text-to-UI design.
Image Source: Galileo AI
This tool helps you design unique creatives like images and illustrations quickly via text to UI and image to UI. This means you can enter a prompt to get what you want. Or use an image as reference.
It’s a useful tool for putting your ideas to paper more easily and making them become a reality.
In essence, this tool automates tasks such as designing marketing landing pages or creating prototypes by generating mockups from text descriptions. As a result, you can focus more on the things that truly matter.
Galileo is best for UI/UX designers, web developers, marketers, and product managers.
Galileo has a free plan. Its paid subscriptions start at $19/month.
Time for some FigJam! 😋
Well, not the kind you eat. But the kind you use to give your creatives a bit of flair.
Image Source: FigJam AI
FigJam AI is helpful for plenty of people. A G2 user says that it “helps us with our day-to-day tasks, such as making posters, etc. Also, it is a collaborative whiteboard tool that makes our work so easy and attractive.”
In a nutshell, it’s a space where you can turn any idea into reality. It has an open, flexible canvas that helps you find solutions to complex issues such as how to plan your next product roadmap. It keeps stakeholders on the same page, so you’ll streamline your feedback process.
You can customize the platform however you like. Think sorting assets into groups. It simply saves you time — and you don’t have to organize everything by hand anymore.
Moreover, FigJam AI pairs well with Figma. In fact, they’re roommates. So, you’ll get the best of both worlds.
FigJam AI is good for product managers, designers, and web developers.
FigJam has a free forever plan. Its subscription plans start at $3/seat/month.
***
Our next tool is — huh? *peers at the sheet of paper*
Well, would you look at that? We ran out of tools! That’s good, right? It must be.
But now comes the hardest part for you: choosing an AI design tool.
Woah woah woah —
Source: Giphy
One more minute. And then we’ll get out of your hair. We want to talk a bit more about Ceros.
Because it’s so effing awesome! 🤩
Ceros is the only AI tool you need to amplify your content and boost your creativity. More than just a tool for improving your design process, Ceros offers a comprehensive environment where all your interactive content creation needs are met. With its intuitive, no-code interface, Ceros empowers you to create visually stunning and highly interactive digital experiences efficiently, transforming how you engage with your audience.
What’s not to like?
Request a demo today to see this amazing tool in action and simplify the way you design stuff.
Q1. How can I use AI in graphic design? 🤔
Q2. One fear: will AI replace graphic designers?
Q3. I’m a design newbie. Are there any beginner-friendly AI tools?
Q4. Any chance there is a free AI for graphic design out there?