The rise of generative AI is redefining how we create, moving beyond the old model of chasing data and cranking up compute. Canva co‑founder Cameron Adams calls this shift the “imagination era” – a time when people and machines collaborate to turn ideas into action. To anchor itself at the center of that era, Canva has rolled out a sweeping new suite of tools under its Creative Operating System (COS 2.0). The platform is built on a three‑layer stack: a Visual Suite that houses designs and templates; a middle AI plane that weaves intelligence into every workflow; and a proprietary model that can generate photos, videos, textures, or 3D graphics on demand. With COS, users can edit, iterate, and launch documents, websites, presentations, whiteboards, videos, and social posts from a single dashboard, turning the creative process into a fluid, AI‑augmented experience.
At the heart of COS is the “Ask Canva” feature, letting designers tag @Canva for copy suggestions or direct the AI to tweak an image or generate variants. That real‑time collaboration turns the AI into an ever‑present design partner, breaking the siloed workflow that once required users to jump between applications. The new 2.0 video editor adds drag‑and‑drop cutting and AI‑driven subtitles, while Affinity – a unified app for pixel‑perfect vector work – is now free forever, giving professional designers deeper control. On the marketing side, Canva Grow scans a brand’s website, identifies target audiences, pulls existing assets, and auto‑creates ads in the formats that perform best across platforms like Meta, letting teams deploy, track, and refine campaigns directly inside Canva.
Canva’s COS is already reshaping enterprise workflows – Walmart, Disney, and FedEx use it for brand‑consistent assets, while DocuSign reports 500+ hours of team capacity and $300,000 saved by integrating Canva into its content pipeline. The platform’s 250 million monthly users, 29 million paid subscribers, and 41 billion designs created since launch illustrate the scale of its adoption. In a crowded field that includes Adobe Express, Figma, and Microsoft Designer, Canva’s advantage lies in its massive template library, extensive asset pool, and user‑friendly interface that appeals to non‑designers. With four pricing tiers ranging from free to enterprise, the company balances accessibility with enterprise‑grade security. For tech leaders, Canva’s journey underscores the value of openness – blending top‑tier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google with its own proprietary engine – and reminds us that the future of creativity is a partnership between people and AI.
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