Graphic design spans everything from simple line art to complex visual compositions, and in business, the tools you choose can determine how effective your campaigns are. Weak platforms produce basic visuals; the right AI-enhanced tools let you capture attention, communicate clearly, and improve conversions.

Whether you’re an experienced professional or just exploring potential tool adoption, design shouldn’t feel like a struggle. With the best AI tools for designers highlighted below, you can streamline workflows, experiment faster, and achieve professional-quality results—saving time while maintaining creative control.

Defining AI tools for designers

AI-driven tools for graphic design are software solutions that use artificial intelligence (such as machine learning, neural networks, and generative models) to generate visual content, assist and speed up creative workflows, automate repetitive tasks, refine visual outputs, and expand creative possibilities. These tools can create images from text prompts and reference pictures, enhance and upscale assets, refine branding strategies, and support ideation.

5 best AI-powered tools for designers

#1. VistaCreate

AI image generators hold a firm place in the design field, but editing remains just as important. Graphic design editors are essential to overall visual success, as they fine-tune images, layouts, and motion graphics to serve a clear purpose, represent a brand accurately, and make a lasting impression. VistaCreate is a fantastic AI graphic design tool for these tasks. It’s a template-based design platform enhanced with AI. Its main features include:

• A functional dashboard with layouts, features, and visual assets
• Brand kit integrations (color schemes, fonts, and logos)
• Line art, symbol, and mask collections
• AI-powered tools such as an image generator, background remover, and AI writer
• Collaboration, content planning, and scheduling tools

Whether you’re a design amateur or an expert, VistaCreate offers the flexibility to create animated posts, event stickers, marketing visuals, presentations, and more. The platform speeds up social media campaign products, high-volume visual content creation, and product cart editing.

#2. Fontjoy

Typography is a complex field, especially when it comes to pairing typefaces for websites, campaigns, and products. Luckily, Fontjoy makes lettering-related tasks more approachable and efficient. Fontjoy is an AI-driven tool for typography design and pairing. Its main features include:

• AI-generated font combinations based on contrast, style, purpose, and audience
• Lock-ins and shuffles of favorite fonts and alternatives
• Custom weighting to emphasize specific font traits

Tools like Fontjoy are most effective during early design exploration, while the final quality and relevance of typography decisions still depend on the designer’s judgment. Fontjoy works best for branding projects, website typography, and print layouts. It can quickly generate multiple combinations for client presentations, saving design teams time during font experimentation.

#3. Kittl

Illustrations take up a significant portion of graphic designers’ workflows. McKinsey reports that generative AI reduces production time in design workflows, allowing brands to iterate faster while maintaining visual consistency across large volumes of design assets. That’s why Kittl is worth considering if attention-grabbing illustrations are among your main goals. It is a web-based platform for vector and illustration design with AI assistance. What makes Kittl stand out is its ease of use. It includes features such as:

• Vector and illustration creation and editing capabilities
• A multi-canvas workspace for complex projects
• Collaboration tools for team editing

Kittl supports the creation of type-focused posters, banners, and logos while preserving a cohesive style. It’s a strong option when consistency across illustrations and vectors becomes difficult to maintain. The platform connects illustration and layout needs in an AI-enhanced design tool, helping to build strong, vector- and illustration-heavy designs.

#4. Leonardo AI

Generative AI platforms aren’t limited to heavyweight players like Midjourney, the DepositPhotos AI Image Generator, Google’s Nano Banana, and Dall-E 3. The field offers many efficient alternatives, and Leonardo AI is among them. The tool focuses on delivering high-quality illustrations, concept art, and design assets. In addition to text-to-image generation with style customization, Leonardo AI includes:

• AI Canvas, refining, tweaking, or merging generated outputs
• Upscaler, providing high-resolution visuals for print-ready designs
• Video and animation generation, allowing designers to enhance campaigns, projects, and presentations

Leonardo AI is an efficient tool for designing mood boards, commercials, and concept art, offering multiple presets for branding and styling. Its balance of control and variety helps designers explore creativity and produce original, eye-catching visuals.

#5. DepositPhotos

DepositPhotos is a stock media platform offering integrated AI-powered tools for creative design. The stock content agency combines licensed visuals with custom creation capabilities. Thanks to the DepositPhotos AI Image Generator, designers can optimize their creative workflows with crisp, commercially available visuals.

DepositPhotos is more than a massive library of royalty-free pictures. The platform includes the following features that designers can benefit from:

• Text-to-image generator: Create visuals from prompts and reference pictures, set your ideal style, choose an aspect ratio, and select from multiple outputs.
• Background remover: Isolate images without using external tools.
• Object/person remover: Achieve clean edits without manual masking.
• Face modifier: Adjust expressions, change makeup, and customize the look.
• Upscaler: Get high-resolution outputs for web and print files.
• API: Seamlessly integrate any feature into your website or app and enjoy effortless editing and image uploads. You can also white-label stock content and brand it with your own logos, colors, and fonts.

DepositPhotos supports a wide range of use cases, from marketing campaigns and social media visuals to concept art mockups, print designs, and product carts. Thanks to the combination of stock content and AI editing, adopting DepositPhotos saves time and eliminates the need to switch between libraries and creative tools.

Dos & don’ts of AI tools for designers

✅ DO:

1. Use AI for ideation and prototyping, not just designing final outputs
2. Combine tools across workflow stages (generation → refinement → output)
3. Review outputs against brand standards for consistency
4. Automate repetitive tasks to free time for creative decision-making
5. Experiment with multiple tools to discover unique visual styles

❌ DON’T:

1. Rely solely on AI—always evaluate results through a human lens
2. Use outputs without confirming licensing or usage rights
3. Overuse templates or style presets, which can lead to generic visuals
4. Ignore fundamental design principles such as contrast, hierarchy, and alignment
5. Treat AI as a replacement for design skill, creativity, or strategy

Closing thoughts

The AI tools for designing highlighted here are reshaping how teams approach creativity. DepositPhotos streamlines stock and custom content, Fontjoy simplifies typography decisions, Kittl ensures consistency in vector work, Leonardo AI expands visual experimentation, and VistaCreate accelerates social and motion graphics production. Using these platforms strategically allows you or your team to focus on idea development and precise execution—turning complex projects into manageable workflows.