Told investors that more than half of its small-business advertisers worldwide now use AI to create or tune their ads.
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Where studio work is going
The biggest platforms now sell the easy production work straight to the businesses design studios serve: the first logo, social posts, ad variations, decks, a simple site, a first app screen. The professional side is still growing, and the work that is growing is digital products.
The squeeze, in the platforms' own words
Over 9 million small businesses use at least one of its AI ad-creative tools. Mark Zuckerberg on where it is headed: a business states its goal, then “you connect to your bank account, you don't need any creative.”
People make more than 3 billion images a week in ChatGPT and its image API, and new templates start from flyers and product photos.
Launched Claude Design for designers and for everyone else. Its product page pitches making materials without waiting on a design queue. Figma's and Adobe's shares fell that day.
Its co-founder said Canva is becoming an AI platform that works like a design agency in your pocket, with $4 billion in annual revenue and 265 million monthly users.
One of the largest ad holding companies opened a self-serve version of its AI platform so brands of any size can plan, create and publish campaigns on their own.
Morgan Stanley downgraded Adobe, citing the debate over AI disruption. More than a dozen firms downgraded Adobe in 2026, and its average analyst rating is the lowest since the 1990s.
Graphic-design jobs are projected to fall 2% over the decade, with AI design tools named as a reason. Web and digital design jobs are projected to grow 5%.
Who sells around the studio
Design tools
Adobe Express; Canva for logos, ads and sites; Figma Buzz, for marketing assets made by non-designers
AI labs
OpenAI images and its self-serve ad desk; Anthropic's Claude Design; xAI's image and video generation
Google, Microsoft
Creative tools inside Google Ads; Pomelli, which builds a campaign from a small business's own site; Stitch for app screens; Microsoft Designer and Copilot brand kits
Ad platforms
Site and app builders
Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy, Shopify, Framer, Webflow; Lovable, Bolt, Replit, v0
Holding companies
WPP's self-serve platform for brands
What cuts the other way
Adobe's creative and marketing subscriptions grew 13% to $4.65 billion last quarter.
Figma's revenue grew 48% to $370 million, with net dollar retention of 136% among larger customers.
Wix's revenue from agencies and freelancers who build sites for others, plus resellers, grew 17% to $213.8 million.
Meta says it is building agency integrations into its AI creative tools from day one.
Anthropic's own post on creative work says the model cannot replace taste or imagination.
What it means for studios
- The squeeze is on the easy production, the first draft of everything, and the platforms are selling it to the client directly.
- What still pays is judgment, the client relationship, and a brand system the client can actually ship.
- The growth is in digital products. Graphic-production jobs are shrinking while digital design jobs grow.
That is the work I build with studios: apps in your client's own brand, while you keep the client and the taste. See what runs today.