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Canva, the Australian startup that\u2019s won over 265 million users with its design software, is launching a new suite of tools that combine visual creation and workflow automation, run by AI agents that respond to conversational prompts.<\/p>\n
Dubbed Canva AI 2.0, the new platform of services lets users create and alter designs using natural language, and connects to other services like Gmail, Slack, and Zoom in order to generate new content. The new platform also boasts persistent memory, allowing Canva to learn how people work, and can automatically update designs as brand imagery gets tweaked.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to rearchitect the whole Canva platform,\u201d Cliff Obrecht, Canva\u2019s cofounder and chief operating officer, tells Fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canva, founded in 2012, integrated generative AI functions onto its platform in early 2023, just a few months after ChatGPT\u2019s release. (At the time, Fortune noted that the startup was wary of using the term \u201cAI\u201d to advertise its services, preferring the term \u201cmagic\u201d instead.)<\/p>\n
Obrecht describes Canva\u2019s previous AI services\u2014generating images and video, or generating a whole presentation\u2014as \u201ca design platform with AI services built on top.\u201d With these new services, Canva hopes to go beyond design to offer more coworking capabilities for users.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For example, the new Canva can crawl the web for breaking tech news overnight, determine what\u2019s trending, then create\u2014and even schedule\u2014social media posts on its own. \u201cIt can help you complete your whole job,\u201d Obrecht says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canva\u2019s rise in AI<\/p>\n
Canva has quietly become one of the world\u2019s most used consumer AI apps. Canva is the world\u2019s third most used generative AI web product by monthly active users, behind Google Gemini and ahead of China\u2019s DeepSeek chatbot, according to an analysis by VC firm a16z.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canva\u2019s massive user base has pushed the company to think carefully about how to offer AI services without blowing a hole in its budget. \u201cThere\u2019s only so long you can fund your user base with VC-funded dollars,\u201d Obrecht says. \u201cWith 265 million users on a monthly basis hammering our services, we have to own our models and we have to own infrastructure that serves our models.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canva has acquired several other AI startups in recent years, including Leonardo AI, an image-generating platform, in 2024. Just last week,\u00a0Canva acquired Simtheory, a platform for building agents, and Ortto, a marketing automation company.<\/p>\n
These investments have helped Canva produce its own foundational AI models, rather than solely relying on models from third parties. The startup claims that its AI services are sevenfold faster and 30-fold cheaper than \u201ccomparable\u201d frontier models. Obrecht adds that Canva is also trying to explore how to tap device processing power for AI, rather than go into the cloud.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canva will offer multiple tiers for pricing. Free users will get access to Canva\u2019s basic AI, with a small number of credits for premium models. Pricing then escalates through different tiers all the way up to $100 a month, which Obrecht describes as \u201calmost all-you-can-eat\u201d\u2014even if there are still some limits on Canva\u2019s most powerful models.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Software-as-a-service companies have been hit hard in recent months by investor fears about competition from AI developers like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Design software developers are particularly threatened by AI, as ChatGPT and Claude increasingly take on the ability to generate video and images.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shares in Adobe, which makes Photoshop and other design and publishing software, are down by more than 30% over the past 12 months. Shares in design startup Figma have performed even worse, losing almost 85% of their value since the company\u2019s $1.2 billion IPO.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canva, which is still privately held, claims it reached $4 billion in revenue for 2025. Obrecht, in an interview with Bloomberg last November, suggested an IPO was \u201cprobably imminent in the next couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obrecht notes that, despite the so-called AI scare trade, Canva\u2019s shares are still trading at its last valuation of $42 billion, reached during an employee stock sale last year. \u201cWe\u2019ve fortunately avoided being hit by that SaaS apocalypse,\u201d he adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s aware that rapidly changing technology can pose a threat to Canva if executives aren\u2019t careful. \u201cIf we\u2019re not going to disrupt ourselves, then we\u2019re going to be disrupted,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Update, April 16, 2026: This article has been updated with a more current figure for Canva\u2019s 2025 revenue.<\/p>\n
#Canva #unveils #suite #agentic #tools #design #startup #powerhouse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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