Anthropic has launched Claude Design, an AI-powered service that generates visual assets, including prototypes, pitch decks and marketing materials from text prompts, marking the company's most ambitious expansion beyond its core language model business.
The tool, developed by Anthropic's in-house Labs division and powered by the newly released Claude Opus 4.7 model, is available in research preview for paid Claude subscribers.
It is aimed squarely at users who need to produce visual work but lack design expertise, from founders building pitch decks to product managers mocking up interfaces and marketing teams creating campaign assets.
Users describe what they want in plain language, and Claude builds an initial version, which can then be refined through conversation, inline comments, direct edits or custom sliders generated by the model.
The launch sent shares in Figma, the dominant player in UI and UX design with an estimated 80% to 90% market share, down roughly 7% on Friday.
The timing raised eyebrows: Anthropic chief product officer Mike Krieger stepped down from Figma's board just days before the announcement.
Canva, the browser-based design platform, took a different approach to the competitive threat, deepening a two-year partnership with Anthropic that allows Claude Design outputs to be exported directly into Canva's editor for further refinement and collaboration.
Canva CEO said the integration would make it seamless for users to bring drafts from Claude Design into Canva, where they become fully editable.
The tool can also analyse existing codebases and design files to replicate an organisation's brand elements, including colours, typography and components, automatically applying them to new projects.
Completed designs can be exported as PDFs, PowerPoint files or packaged for Claude Code to build into working applications.
Early testing partners include Canva, cloud monitoring company Datadog and online learning platform Brilliant, which have used the tool to build product mockups, presentations and marketing content.
Reaction in design and technology circles was mixed.
The Register's coverage drew pointed commentary from readers, with one writing that Anthropic was making clear it was coming for design jobs, while another dismissed the tool as a repackaging of templates, compositing and fonts.
Molly McCoy, a graphic designer with 25 years' experience, told The Register she expected the tool to have the most impact in rigid corporate environments where creativity is already constrained.
She described her own experience with AI design tools as akin to "a slot machine that doesn't hit," but acknowledged the technology would reshape parts of the industry.
Related reading
- Anthropic launches Claude Design
- Anthropic launches Claude Managed Agents as enterprise revenue hits $30 billion run rate
- Anthropic cuts off Claude Code subscribers from third-party AI agents, starting with OpenClaw
Anthropic said Claude Design gives designers room to explore more directions than time normally allows, while opening visual production to people without a design background.
The company has not provided a timeline for moving beyond research preview.
The recap
- Anthropic launches Claude Design research preview for visual assets.
- Tool creates templates, fonts and compositing assets, according to commenters.
- The feature is released as a research preview with limited availability.
