Threads such as "Is Rive worth it?" and "Learning Rive, but will AI do it by the time I learn it?" appear regularly on r/Rive_app and r/MotionDesign. Here is our honest view, as a company that makes a tool in the same space.
Who should learn it
Product designers who want their motion to ship, not be rebuilt. Motion designers moving from video into apps. Game UI artists. Developers who want designers to own animation.
What it costs
Rive has a free plan. Its pricing page says free exports play a Rive splash screen, and paid plans start at $9 per seat per month. The bigger cost is time: expect a few weeks to get comfortable with the editor and state machines.
Will AI make it pointless?
Rive itself now offers an AI coding agent and a CLI, and ExodeUI has an MCP server for AI coding tools. AI can produce a first draft. Deciding what should move, how it should feel and how states fit a product is still design work, and knowing the tool makes you better at directing and fixing AI output.
Alternatives to consider
If you mainly do product UI and want readable JSON files, spring physics and layout, look at ExodeUI too; we make it. If you mainly need played animations, Lottie may be enough.