I'd like to propose that you use the facilities of the cleveref
package to achieve your typesetting objective. You should
load the cleveref
package with the options nameinlink
, noabbrev
, and capitalize
; this will make the output of \cref
look like that of autoref
. (Note: cleveref
must be loaded after hyperref
.)
provide the optional argument example
to the \label
instruction:
\label[example]{fig:xyz}
Of course, keep issuing the instruction \renewcommand\figurename{Example}
inside the figure
environment, as per the earlier solution.
No other changes required.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[nameinlink,noabbrev,capitalize]{cleveref}
\begin{document}
\setcounter{figure}{7} % just for this case
\begin{figure}
\renewcommand\figurename{Example} % as per the earlier solution
\centering
ABC
\caption{This is an example.}
\label[example]{fig:xyz} % note the optional argument: "example"
\end{figure}
A cross-reference to \cref{fig:xyz}.
\end{document}