Microsoft Paint Gets AI Tools—But Do We Really Need More AI Art?

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• Microsoft Paint Gets AI Tools—But Do We Really Need More AI Art?

• Turn Still Photos into Animated Stories in Seconds — with AI

• Quick Tips

• 5 AI design tools

Read time: 4 minutes

Today’s AI Design Breakthrough

Microsoft Paint Gets AI Tools—But Do We Really Need More AI Art?

TL;DR

Microsoft rolled out updated icons for its Office apps and, despite mixed reactions at launch, the designs are earning praise—especially among fans of Apple—because they lean into Apple’s “Liquid Glass” aesthetic, a translucent, layered visual trend, and the execution is sharper than expected.

Short Paragraphs

Earlier this month Microsoft unveiled a fresh set of icons for its core Office 365/365 apps—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and more. The redesign retains recognizable brand letters and colours, but introduces smoother curves, layered translucency and a refined material feel.
Although some longtime users initially reacted unfavourably—calling the look “too slick” or “trying to copy Apple”—the new icons are being praised for how they embrace the “Liquid Glass” material aesthetic that Apple introduced in its recent OS update, giving Microsoft’s icons an unexpectedly premium, modern feel.

Highlights

• Microsoft’s design piece calls out key values: fluidity, play, simplicity and approachability in the new icons.

• The visual shift includes curved forms, rich gradients, soft folds instead of sharp edges—moving away from the rigid, flat icon style of previous versions.

• Apple’s “Liquid Glass” material is characterised by translucency, layered depth and dynamic interaction, and Microsoft’s icons appear to borrow from that aesthetic in a subtle but deliberate way.

• The redesign is more than cosmetic: Microsoft ties the icon update to deeper signal of how Office apps are evolving around AI, collaboration and fluid workflows.

Tool Spotlight

Turn Still Photos into Animated Stories in Seconds — with AI

Tool of the Day: A1 Art

A1 Art turns your text prompts into high-quality AI-generated art with an intuitive, mobile-friendly interface — no technical skills required.

Scenario

When you want to generate unique visuals for a campaign, social post, app concept, or mood board — but don’t have time (or budget) for a designer or stock images.

Value

• Instantly transforms text prompts into visually striking AI images

• Accessible on mobile and web, with a clean UI perfect for non-tech users

• Great for rapid ideation, content creation, or prototyping visuals

How it works

Type in a prompt like "futuristic city in pastel colors" or "abstract UX dashboard illustration." A1 Art uses AI image generation (similar to Stable Diffusion or Midjourney) to return several polished artworks. You can refine prompts, upscale results, and download high-resolution images — all in a few taps.

Prompt of the Day

Today's Style: Luminous Dichotomy

Example:

Quick Tips

Title: Jumpstart Designs with Figma AI’s First

• Tip: Use Figma’s First Draft to instantly generate editable wireframes or UI layouts from simple text prompts.

• Figma’s First Draft feature leverages AI to transform your ideas into design mockups within minutes. By entering a prompt like “A pricing page for a developer tools startup,” First Draft utilizes Figma’s design libraries to create a layout tailored to your description. You can further refine the design by adjusting themes, colors, typography, spacing, and more—all within the Figma interface.

To use First Draft:

1. Click on the Actions menu in the Figma toolbar.

2. Select First Draft.

3. Choose a design library or let Figma AI select one based on your prompt.

4. Enter your design prompt and click Make it.

5. Preview different themes and make changes as needed.

Recommended Tools Today

Strique: AI marketing tool for insights and automation.

Hubspot: Grow your business faster with HubSpot's customer platform.

GenYOU: Generate personalized AI portraits and photos for free.

Inkwise AI: Create documents from uploaded files with AI.

Collegebot.ai: Academic and job search assistance with AI.

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