20 AI Tools for Designers that Are Actually Helpful

Here you will find 20 AI tools for designers that take care of different tasks such as creating mockups for branding, pairing fonts, generating color palettes, video editing, and more.

Let’s get one thing out of the way —design is about creativity, not automation, so no AI tool can replace the work of a real designer, replicate abstract thinking, and create something new and original from scratch. On the other hand, it’s also true that some tasks just eat up our time. For example, background removals, searching for stock images that you’re actually allowed to use, resizing assets, and tweaking layouts. Such tasks are necessary, but not exactly the fun part of the job.

That’s where you can try AI tools and see which ones can integrate well with your style of work to handle the tedious bits, speed things up, and give you some inspiration. The challenge here is to figure out which tools actually help and which just add another login to keep track of.

For this list, I tried to cut through the noise and do extra research and testing to find 20 AI tools for designers that are actually helpful. I choose ones for different tasks such as creating mockups for branding, pairing fonts, generating color palettes, suggesting improvements for code, video editing, and handling repetitive tasks and bulk editing.

1. Lummi AI 

• What it does: Generates design concepts and AI-generated visuals
• Pricing: Free with low resolution, Pro subscription for watermark free high-res images

You can use this to generate beautiful stock photos for posters, banners, social media posts, and whatever you need them for. The search has options for color, orientation, luminance, or amount of people, and you can also tweak the colors, contrast, or add duo tone before exporting and even retouching your images to add or remove elements. 

 

2. Ideogram  

• What it does: Free AI tool for generating images, particularly good at typography-based designs.
• Pricing: 10 free credits a week, Premium subscription plans for more credits and features

Ideogram is basically a free alternative to MidJourney. It’s a solid tool if you need a cool design visual and want to save time digging through stock sites. You type your idea into Ideogram, and it spits out an image that’s pretty close to what you had in mind. A few tweaks in Photoshop, and you’re done.

 

3. Relume AI 

• What it does: Generates wireframes with structured content
• Pricing: Subscription-based with a free trial available

Let’s say you’re building a generic website and don’t want to start from a blank screen. You throw your project details into Relume AI, and it lays out a structured wireframe with sections and placeholder text. Now you’ve got something solid to work with, so you can go straight into styling and refining without getting stuck on the basics.

 

4. Adobe Sensei 

• What it does: AI-powered editing assistant for Creative Cloud tools designed to automate tasks
• Pricing: Included with Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions.

Adobe Sensei is an AI that’s embedded in Adobe’s tools for for bulk actions and automating repatative tasks. Let’s say you need to remove the backgrounds of a whole batch of product photos, Sensei’s AI can do the heavy lifting in one click. A couple of touch-ups, and you’re onto the next image. It’s also great for video editing.

 

5. Adobe Firefly 

• What it does: Creates images, recolors vectors, and even generates 3D visuals using simple text prompts.
• Pricing: Included with Adobe Creative Cloud, with some features available for free.

This is another image generation tool, and it’s included with Creative Cloud. It works with prompts and generates a few options. You grab the one that fits, tweak the colors, and use it in your project.

 

6. Adobe Express 

• What it does: All-in-one AI-powered content creation tool for making social posts, flyers, and marketing graphics.
• Pricing: Free plan available, with premium features in Adobe Creative Cloud.

If you need a quick Instagram post for an upcoming event, but don’t have time to start from scratch, you hop into Adobe Express, pick a template, type in your text, and swap out the images. The AI suggests some design tweaks, and within minutes, you’ve got a post ready to go.

 

7. PromptBoard 

• What it does: Generates creative prompts for brainstorming design projects.
• Pricing: Free to use for iPhone and iPad devices

Most of the tools require prompts to work with and the more specific and well-written the prompt is, the better the results. This tool gets the meta as its sole purpose is to generate creative prompts. These prompts are great for brainstorming and giving you ideas for creative directions for, let’s say, a landing page about skincare.

 

8. Vance AI 

• What it does: Enhances image quality, upscales resolution, and reduces noise in photos.
• Pricing: Subscriptions based on the amount of credits

If you’ve got a client photo that’s just a little too low-res for the website, this tool can enhance the quality and save you time from asking the client to send a better photo. It will give you a much sharper, high-resolution version of any photo that looks good on any screen.

 

9. Let’s Enhance 

• What it does: AI-powered tool for boosting image resolution and quality.
• Pricing: Free plan with paid options for high-res exports and amount of credits.

Same as the previous tool, you can fix that pixelated logo a client sent you for a print design. Instead of asking them for a better file (and waiting forever), you can run it through Let’s Enhance. It will smooth out the edges, and fix the colors, and you will have something usable without losing sharpness.

 

10. PNG Maker AI 

• What it does: Turns text descriptions into transparent PNG images.
• Pricing: A free plan is available, with premium features for more advanced options.

If you need a clean, transparent PNG for your site or project, you can describe what you want in PNG Maker AI, and it generates a high-quality image for you with no need to manually cut out anything. Super simple! Like my delicious strawberry mochi here.

 

11. Fontjoy 

• What it does: Helps pick font combinations based on contrast, similarity, or user preference.
• Pricing: Free to use

What else: Generates typography inspiration for various design projects, including websites, branding, and editorial layouts.

This tool is awesome when you’re working on a website redesign and need a fresh typeface combination. Instead of randomly testing fonts or overthinking them, you can try Fontjoy to generate some pairings for you. You will be able to visually assess them and choose a balanced and cohesive typography style much quicker.

 

12. Kittl 

• What it does: Intuitive design tool for creating logos, illustrations, and more.
• Pricing: A free plan is available, with paid options for high-res exports and commercial use.

Let’s say you’re running an online store and need a quick t-shirt design for a new campaign. Instead of starting from scratch, you log into Kittl, browse some t-shirt design templates, and pick one that fits your theme. You tweak the text and colors to match your brand, then download the design in high-res for printing.

 

13. Khroma 

• What it does: AI-powered color palette generator based on your style preferences.
• Pricing: Free to use.

Khroma is for brainstorming color schemes, especially great for branding projects. You can start by selecting a few colors you like and think will fit the brand’s vibe and it will generate palettes based on those colors.

 

14. Color Magic App 

• What it does: Generates color palettes based on themes, emotions, or keywords.
• Pricing: Free to use

Color Magic app works with prompts. For example, let’s say you need to design a style guide for a new wellness brand and want the colors to feel “calm but not boring.” Instead of guessing, you type “serene, natural, balanced” into Color Magic App, and it gives you a few harmonious palettes to choose from.

 

15. Looka 

• What it does: AI-powered branding tool that generates logos, color schemes, and marketing materials.
• Pricing: One-time purchase for branding kits.

It’s not replacing the full branding process, but it can give you some professional concepts fast while you work on more refined design assets. You can use Looka for quick brand identity, as it generates logo concepts and colors, and even lets you export a brand kit. For the visual, I made up a quick mochi brand “Strawberry Dream” so you can see what it generates.

 

16. Veed. Io 

• What it does: AI-powered video editing and creation tool.
• Pricing: Free plan available, with premium options for high-res exports.

If videos are not your specialty and you don’t feel like spending time learning After Effects or Premier Pro, this is one of those cheats when you need a short promo video for Instagram, but you don’t have any footage. You can choose some stock clips, upload them to Veed.io, and let the AI suggest edits, transitions, and text overlays.

 

17. v0 from Vercel 

• What it does: AI-powered tool that generates React components from text prompts.
• Pricing: Free to use with subscription plans for premium features.

v0-dev is great for components. It can help you, for example, build a clean responsive card component for a dashboard. Instead of coding it from scratch, you can describe it in v0, and it will give you the JSX with Tailwind classes. Of course, you’ll want to be sure there’s no junk, so you can tweak the code to match your standard and drop it into your dashboard project.

 

18. OpenAI 

• What it does: AI assistant for generating text, code, and creative ideas.
• Pricing: Free plan available, with premium access for advanced models.

No need to explain what Open AI is, but I wanted to include it here as an exceptionally decent tool for coding. Let’s say you’re coding a website and you instantly hit a CSS problem that’s driving you nuts. You can always dig through Stack Overflow, but you can also ask ChatGPT. In most cases, it will be able to explain the issue, suggest a fix, and even give you a cleaner way to write the code.

 

19. Claude AI 

• What it does: AI-powered assistant for coding, writing, and brainstorming.
• Pricing: Free to use, with premium options for more advanced features.

Claude is often considered a great alternative to ChatGPT especially for development. What if you need a quick script to automate image resizing, but you’re not a developer? You describe the task to Claude, and it spits out a Python script for you to run.

 

20. Piktochart AI Chart Generator

• What it does: Turns raw data into visually appealing charts and infographics.
• Pricing: Free plan available, with premium plans starting at $14.99/month.

And the last tool is amazing from turning raw data into a chart. In extreme cases when you need to make a marketing brochure for a client and need a cool bar chart to display product sales. You can upload the data to Piktochart, choose a design style that fits your aesthetic, and quickly customize the chart to match the brochure’s look.

 

Some Facts About AI Tools for Designers (FAQ)

You may have concerns about using AI tools, so (hopefully) I might be able to address some of them, especially concerns about security, copyright, and ethics.

Are AI tools safe to use?

It depends on the tool. Some are built with strong security measures (Adobe Sensei, Piktochart, Infogram and OpenAI, for example), while others might not be as careful with your data. AI tools often require access to your files, images, or even personal accounts, so always check their privacy policy before uploading anything sensitive.

Do AI tools store or use my data?

Many AI tools do store data temporarily, especially if they rely on cloud-based processing. Some use your inputs to improve their AI models (meaning your designs might help train future versions of the tool). Look for settings that let you opt out of data collection if privacy is a concern.

Who owns the rights to AI-generated content?

This is tricky. In most cases:

If you use an AI tool as a helper (for generating ideas or assisting with edits), the final design is still yours.

If an AI tool fully generates an image, layout, or design, the copyright situation is unclear. Some AI-generated work may not be protected under copyright at all, meaning anyone can use it.

Always check the tool’s terms. Some tools claim partial ownership (Lummi, Kittl, Looka) or allow others to use the same outputs (Relume, Firefly, v0 from Vercel).

How can I use AI tools safely?

Anything client-related, private, or under NDA should stay far away from AI tools. Avoid uploading confidential files and also don’t forget to check data storage policies, because some AI tools retain what you upload for training purposes.

Also, use local AI tools when possible, meanwing AI software that runs on your device instead of sending data to the cloud, which is safer.

Another measure you can try is to turn off auto-save or sharing features if you’re worried about where your designs end up.

Can AI steal my design style?

Not exactly, but it can mimic certain styles. AI models are trained on massive amounts of existing work, and while (allegedly) they don’t copy directly, they can generate something that feels “inspired” by existing designs. If protecting your unique style matters, keep it way from AI-generated assets.

Should I disclose AI use to clients?

That depends on your ethics and client expectations. If AI helped generate ideas, speed up tasks, or automate minor edits, you don’t need to say anything. But if AI did a significant chunk of the work, the right to do is to disclose that. Some clients might care, and others won’t.

Will AI replace designers?

Nope! AI is good at speeding up repetitive tasks and giving you a starting point, but it lacks creative vision, abstract thinking, “reading between the lines”, feeling the vibe, storytelling, and the ability to truly understand a brand’s personality. It’s just a tool, not a replacement.

 

And there you have it! I hope you found some useful tools to help your design process. Will AI ever replace designers though? Not a chance. But if it ever learns to explain client feedback like “Make it pop” or “Can you just… I don’t know… jazz it up?”, then we might have something to worry about. 😀