Software as a Service Is Dead: Desygner Becomes Automo Design, Free for 50 Million Registered Users, and Mo Opens

Founder Alex Rich bought out his partners to fold Desygner into Automo and make it free. Over 1 million people paid since 2016. Mo opens by invite.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, October 13, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Automo, the AI native business operating system now in alpha, today announced that Desygner, the design platform with 50 million registered users and more than 135 million downloads across its apps, is becoming Automo Design, and that its creative suite is now free for everyone, with AI generation and heavy use paid for separately. Founder Alex Rich has held a majority of Desygner since he started it in 2016. He has now bought out the remaining minority shareholders to bring Desygner fully into Automo under one brand. Automo also opened invite only early access to Mo on iMessage and WhatsApp, so people can design, write, calculate and run their business by sending a message.

Most founders sell their company. Rich bought the rest of his company back so he could give the product away. Terms were not disclosed.

The news lands in the same week as Automo's first advertising, on street screens around Moscone Center in San Francisco during TechCrunch Disrupt, with a blunt message: Software as a service is dead. Automo gained more than 500,000 new users in its first two months without spending on a single ad.

Free design tools are suddenly everywhere. Canva made its Affinity desktop app free last year, and last week ArtCraft released seven open source Adobe alternatives, from Photoshop to Acrobat, still in early alpha, and has since unveiled open source versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Automo has had cloud replacements for Word, Excel and PowerPoint since the day it launched, next to design, video, CRM, helpdesk and point of sale, which is why half a million people arrived in two months without an ad. Each ArtCraft tool is still a separate program for a separate job, and Affinity is still a desktop program you download. Automo runs in the cloud and is fully headless: every design, document, spreadsheet and customer record sits in one shared system that people, AI agents and Mo can all operate, from a browser, a phone, a message, or from inside ChatGPT and Claude, where the whole of Automo is exposed to the model as tools. The AI is there when and where the work needs it, whichever assistant a person already uses.

AI video is next. Automo is extending the free suite with AI video generation of the kind sold by Higgsfield, and prices its AI credits to fall as the cost of running models falls. Bulk model pricing drops as competition between AI providers grows, and Automo passes the drop on to the people using it.

The same system already replaces research agents such as Genspark and the CRM, ERP and HCM suites sold by the largest software companies, and holds SOC 2 Type II attestation.

The aim is bigger than design. The SBA counts 36 million small businesses in the United States, and about 30 million of them have no employees but the owner. Rich wants every one of them to run their whole business on Automo free for as long as they like, without paying for QuickBooks, HubSpot, Canva, Mailchimp or Trello, and to pay only when they choose AI or heavy use. For larger companies the offer is already commercial: Automo is replacing enterprise software stacks at half of what those companies pay today, with support included, which is how it signed its first major enterprise customers in the past few months while still in alpha.

"Thirty million American businesses are one person," said Rich. "They were never going to pay five subscriptions to run a company of one. Now they do not have to. Free, for as long as they like, and the big companies pay half of what they paid before. That is the whole plan."

"They sold you the alphabet. We give you the dictionary," said Alex Rich, founder of Automo and Desygner. "Seven free alternatives to seven Adobe apps is still seven apps. A program built for one job can be brilliant on one desk, but it cannot run a company."

"For twenty years software sold every business the alphabet, one letter at a time: a tool for each job, a licence for each person, a login for each tool," Rich said. "Nobody shipped the dictionary, because you cannot meter a dictionary by the seat. Automo is the dictionary. Every design, document, number and customer in one place, and Mo is how you use it. You text what you want done, and it gets done."

Mo is not a chatbot attached to a product. It operates the whole system. Text Mo to chase three overdue invoices, build the board deck from live numbers in the brand kit and merge the duplicate contacts, and Mo starts all three in the background, asks before it sends anything in your name, keeps working after you close the app, and tells you when each one lands. Mo works today in the Automo web app, on iPhone and Android, and from inside Claude and ChatGPT. On iMessage and WhatsApp it is invite only for now, first in, first served.

Instinct raised a billion dollars this year on the promise of an agent that runs your life, and the demos book dinner. The gap between that hype and what a smart agent can actually do is the story of 2026. An agent is only as useful as what it can reach, and most of them can reach a calendar and a restaurant. Mo reaches the business, because the invoices, the customers, the documents and the numbers all live in the system Mo sits inside. That is the difference between an assistant that talks about work and one that does it.

"Other assistants book you a table," said Rich. "Mo runs your life and runs your business. It designs the flyer, writes the proposal, updates the numbers and follows up the customer, all from the thread where you asked."

Desygner keeps running at desygner.com and becomes Automo Design in the coming weeks, one of the front doors into Automo. Its creative suite is now free for everyone: design, documents, presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs, whiteboards, video and social content. Fewer than 1 percent of Desygner's former paying users choose to pay, for AI or heavy use, and people see the cost of AI image and video generation before anything is charged.

Moving over takes a file, not a migration project. PowerPoint (.pptx), Word, PDF, Illustrator and InDesign IDML files open in Automo ready to edit, and Excel workbooks keep their tabs and formulas, though not their formatting.

Rich started Desygner in 2016, after selling his previous company, a fintech, because design software was too expensive and too hard to use. He bootstrapped it from Australia to 50 million registered users without venture capital, and runs it today from Singapore. He has three exits behind him and no investors to answer to, which is how he can buy out his partners and give the product away. The giants of software charge every business by the seat, the one person shop at the same rate as the bank. Rich is taking the tools they sell and handing them to 30 million one person businesses for nothing, and the people who built Desygner keep building it, inside Automo.

At a glance

• More than 1 million: people who have paid for Desygner since 2016, who now get it free
• Fewer than 1 percent: former paying users who choose to pay, for AI or heavy use
• 500,000+: new Automo users in its first two months, before any advertising
• 50 million: registered Desygner users
• More than 135 million: downloads across Desygner's apps
• One owner: founder Alex Rich, a majority holder since 2016, has bought out the remaining minority shareholders
• $0: Desygner's creative suite, for everyone; AI generation and heavy use are paid
• 30 million: US businesses with no employees but the owner, who Rich wants running on Automo free for as long as they like
• Half: what enterprises pay Automo compared with their current software stack, support included
• Today: Mo in the Automo web app, on iPhone and Android, and from Claude and ChatGPT
• Invite only: Mo on iMessage and WhatsApp, first in, first served

Availability

Desygner's free creative suite is available now at desygner.com and automo.ai, where Automo is in alpha. Mo is at automo.ai/mo, with iMessage and WhatsApp access by invitation.

About Automo

Automo is an AI native business operating system built to replace a company's whole software stack, including CRM, ERP, helpdesk, point of sale, marketing, design, documents, knowledge and automation, with one login and one source of truth. It runs in the cloud, is headless, and includes Mo, its AI assistant. Automo has been in alpha since June 2026 and holds SOC 2 Type II attestation. Automo AI Pte. Ltd. is based in Singapore. automo.ai

About Desygner

Desygner is a design platform for designs, documents, presentations, PDFs, social content, video, whiteboards and spreadsheets. Founded in Australia in 2016, it has 50 million registered users, more than 135 million downloads across its apps, and more than 1 million people who have paid for it. Founder Alex Rich has held a majority of Desygner since the start and has now bought out the remaining minority shareholders. Desygner is part of Automo and becomes Automo Design in the coming weeks. desygner.com

Canva, Affinity, Adobe, Photoshop, Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign, ArtCraft, Microsoft, PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Apple, iMessage, iPhone, WhatsApp, Android, Claude, ChatGPT, Instinct, Higgsfield, Genspark, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Trello and TechCrunch Disrupt are trademarks of their respective owners. Automo and Desygner are not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

Alex Rich
Automo
+61 401 700 744
alex@automo.ai
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