Australian design software startup Canva on October 30 introduced a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that the company says is the first to understand and create designs.
"When it comes to creativity, like the first wave of AI models such as diffusion models, they do a good job of generating flat images. But they are just images. They are flat, not editable, and not customisable," Danny Wu, head of AI products at Canva, told Moneycontrol.
"We have seen a leap forward with Omni models, which are more powerful because they can understand visual inputs better. Still, they face the same problem since they generate flat, layered images that are hard to edit," he said.
However, Canva’s new Design Model understands and creates layered designs with elements, including structure, with all the different elements separated, as well as generating the elements within them, he added. This approach shifts from flat images that only AI can edit to designs that both AI and humans can collaborate on and edit together.
Canva's Creative Operating System
Wu said that Canva leveraged its years of design expertise, data sets and research to create this foundational model which understands design logic, orchestrates layouts, and generates fully editable content in seconds.
The Design Model powers Canva's new Creative Operating System, marking the biggest evolution of its product to date. The platform brings together every part of the creative process, from design and collaboration to publishing and performance.
This includes a reimagined Visual Suite, which expands creative possibilities across formats including video, email, code and forms, allowing users to design and collaborate more efficiently. It also introduces new and enhanced AI-powered tools and features aimed at helping users grow their brands.
"As knowledge becomes more and more accessible, we believe we’re moving from the Information Era to the Imagination Era, a time when creativity has never been more critical," said Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins.
"From major upgrades to our Visual Suite with Video, Email, and Forms, to a powerful new AI layer and tools to grow your brand and business, we can’t wait to see how people use all of these new products to bring their ideas to life," Perkins added.
Read: India could be our biggest market in the next two years: Canva co-founder Cameron Adams
What does the new Visual Suite offer?
The new Visual Suite features a revamped video editor that combines professional-grade tools with an easy-to-use interface on desktop and mobile, allowing users to quickly create engaging videos on any device. One can also generate polished content from a single prompt with Magic Video and a new library of on-trend templates.
A redesigned timeline also makes trimming, syncing, and layering footage fast and intuitive, while AI tools help automate edits and effects, the company said.
Email Design, which Canva says is one of the most requested products, introduces a new format that brings email creation into the same platform where marketing teams already design their content. The company stated that teams can now create, customise, and export fully branded marketing emails in minutes.
People can now connect Canva Sheets to their Canva Code creations, making it easy to build interactive, data-powered widgets such as live dashboards, calculators, and learning tools that automatically update as data changes.
The Forms feature also brings in a new way to collect feedback, RSVPs, and data directly inside the platform.
What are Canva's new AI enhancements?
Canva's AI assistant, Canva AI, has now been integrated across all parts of the design process. Users can generate elements, photos, videos, textures or 3D graphics directly on the canvas from a text prompt. New style-matching capabilities also ensure that generated elements fit seamlessly within a design, maintaining a cohesive and consistent look without manual adjustments.
A new feature, Ask Canva, acts as a design partner built into the editor. One can tag @Canva to receive instant feedback, design suggestions, or smart edits without breaking their workflow.
The tool can also generate or edit images and assist users in refining their copy through capabilities such as providing different headline ideas.
"We think this style of collaboration shows off what's possible when you integrate AI and build it to support collaboration and co-designing with humans," Wu said.
New tools to grow brands
In addition, Canva is introducing new tools for brand management, marketing campaigns, and performance tracking in a bid to become an end-to-end marketing platform.
This includes Canva Grow, a marketing platform that brings creation, publishing, and performance together at a single place and Brand system, which integrates brand guidelines and assets directly into the editor. This allows teams to access fonts, colours, logos and templates within their workflow, helping maintain consistency across designs and channels.
Canva is also introducing a new tier, Canva Business, aimed at individuals, marketers and small teams looking to grow their businesses using advanced AI, analytics and brand management tools. The plan provides expanded storage, higher AI usage, and specialised tools to help teams scale their operations.
The company is further rolling out a new version of its creative software suite Affinity, about 18 months after acquiring the firm.
The new Affinity combines the startup's professional tools, from vector editing and image manipulation to advanced layout design, into a single product with one universal file type. Affinity will now be available for free.
Founded in Australia by Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams in 2013, Canva has more than 260 million monthly active users across more than 190 countries. India is the fourth largest market for the company and is one its fastest growing markets.
India is also among the top countries using Canva Code and Canva AI, the company said.
Canva counts global brands like Stripe, LinkedIn, Snowflake, and Pinterest as Canva Enterprise customers. The company generates $3.5 billion in annualised revenue and was last valued at $42 billion. It counts T. Rowe Price, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners among investors.
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