I Replaced My Entire Design Workflow with AI
Last updated: February 2026
I’m a developer, not a designer. But like most solo founders and freelancers, I end up doing design work anyway — landing pages, social graphics, pitch decks, app mockups. I used to spend 4-6 hours per week on design tasks I’m mediocre at.
So I tried an experiment: replace every design tool in my workflow with AI alternatives for 30 days. No Figma. No Photoshop. No Canva templates. Just AI.
Here’s what survived the experiment and what I crawled back to.
What I Replaced
| Old Tool | AI Replacement | Monthly Savings |
|---|---|---|
| Figma (Pro) | v0 by Vercel + Claude | $15/mo |
| Adobe Photoshop | Midjourney + DALL-E 3 | $22/mo |
| Canva Pro | Gamma + AI image tools | $13/mo |
| Stock photos (Shutterstock) | Midjourney | $29/mo |
| Icon sets (Noun Project) | DALL-E 3 + SVG conversion | $3/mo |
| Total saved | $82/mo |
What Worked Brilliantly
Landing Pages: v0 + Claude
This was the biggest win. I describe a landing page in plain English, v0 generates a working React component with Tailwind CSS. It’s not just a mockup — it’s actual, deployable code.
My old workflow: sketch in Figma (2 hours) → build in code (3 hours) → iterate (2 hours) = 7 hours.
New workflow: describe to v0 (5 minutes) → refine with follow-up prompts (30 minutes) → polish in code with Claude (30 minutes) = ~1 hour.
7 hours → 1 hour. That’s not an incremental improvement. That’s a category change.
The output isn’t award-winning design. It’s clean, professional, and functional. For a SaaS landing page or a project portfolio, it’s more than good enough.
Blog Graphics and Social Media: Midjourney
I used to spend $29/month on Shutterstock for generic stock photos that looked like… generic stock photos. Now I generate custom images with Midjourney that actually match my content.
“A developer looking frustrated at a screen full of error messages, illustrated in a warm editorial style” gives me something unique and on-brand. No more “diverse team of professionals smiling at a laptop.”
Cost: $10/month for Midjourney Basic vs $29/month for Shutterstock. Better images for less money.
Presentations: Gamma
Gamma replaced my Canva Pro subscription for presentations. Describe your presentation topic, Gamma generates slides with actual design sense — proper hierarchy, good use of whitespace, consistent styling.
I used it for a client pitch deck last month. The client complimented the design. I didn’t tell them an AI made it. (Sorry, not sorry.)
Icons and Simple Graphics: DALL-E 3
Need a custom icon? “A minimal line icon of a rocket launching, white on transparent background, suitable for a tech website” → clean, usable icon. Convert to SVG with an online tool, done.
This doesn’t replace a professional icon set for a major product. But for blog posts, presentations, and quick projects? It’s perfect.
What Failed
App UI Design: AI Can’t Replace Figma
I tried using v0 and Claude to design a complete app interface. The individual screens looked fine. But maintaining consistency across 20+ screens — spacing, component patterns, color usage, interaction states — fell apart.
Design systems require precision that AI doesn’t maintain across multiple generations. Every new prompt produces slightly different spacing, slightly different button styles, slightly different typography choices.
Verdict: AI is great for individual pages. It’s not ready for cohesive product design. Figma stays.
Photo Editing: AI Can’t Replace Photoshop (Yet)
I needed to edit product photos — remove backgrounds, adjust lighting, composite multiple images. AI tools can do each of these individually, but the workflow is painful. Remove background in one tool, adjust colors in another, composite in a third.
Photoshop does all of this in one place with precise control. For serious photo editing, AI tools are supplements, not replacements.
Verdict: If you do real photo editing, keep Photoshop. If you just need background removal and basic adjustments, AI tools are fine.
Brand-Consistent Design at Scale
The fundamental problem: AI generates beautiful individual pieces but can’t maintain brand consistency across dozens of assets. Every generation is slightly different. Colors drift. Typography changes. Spacing varies.
For a personal blog or a small project, this doesn’t matter. For a company producing 50+ branded assets per month, it’s a dealbreaker without heavy human oversight.
My Final AI Design Stack
After 30 days, here’s what I actually kept:
| Task | Tool | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Landing pages | v0 + Claude | $20/mo (Claude Pro) |
| Blog/social images | Midjourney | $10/mo |
| Presentations | Gamma | Free tier |
| Quick mockups | v0 | Free tier |
| Icons/simple graphics | DALL-E 3 via ChatGPT | $0 (included in Plus) |
| App UI design | Figma (kept it) | $15/mo |
| Total | $45/mo |
Down from $82/month, and I’m spending about 60% less time on design tasks. The quality is comparable for most use cases and better for some (custom illustrations beat stock photos every time).
Who Should Try This
Solo developers and founders: You’re already doing design work you’re not great at. AI tools produce better results than your Canva templates, faster.
Content creators: Blog graphics, thumbnails, social media images — AI handles all of this well. Stop paying for stock photos.
Freelancers: Faster design iteration means faster client delivery. Use AI for first drafts, refine manually for final delivery.
Who Shouldn’t
Professional designers: AI tools are supplements to your workflow, not replacements. Use them for ideation and first drafts, but your expertise in systems thinking, brand consistency, and user experience is irreplaceable.
Companies with established brand systems: AI can’t reliably maintain brand guidelines across assets. You need human designers (possibly AI-assisted) for brand-consistent work.
The Honest Summary
AI didn’t replace my design workflow. It replaced the parts I was bad at and freed me to focus on the parts that matter. I still make design decisions. I still refine and polish. But the grunt work — the blank canvas, the initial layout, the stock photo hunting — that’s gone.
For a developer who does design out of necessity, that’s everything.
Tools mentioned: v0 | Midjourney | Gamma | Claude