The rise of AI marks a significant shift from decades defined by information tracking and the push for more and more computing power.
Cameron Adams, Canva’s co-founder and CPO, calls this early period “the age of imagination.” Implications: Individuals and businesses must be able to use AI to turn creativity into action.
Canva wants to position itself at the center of this change with a comprehensive suite of new tools. The company’s new Creative Operating System (COS) integrates AI across every layer of content creation to create a single, comprehensive creativity platform rather than a simple template-based design tool.
“We are entering a new era in which we need to rethink how we achieve our goals,” Adams said. “We enable people’s imagination and give them the tools they need to take action.”
“Engine” for creativity
Adams describes Canva’s platform as a three-tier stack. The top Visual Suite tier contains designs, images, and other content. In the center is a Canva AI plane that allows collaboration. And the basic original model that supports it all.
At the heart of Canva’s strategy is its underlying Creative Operating System (COS). This “engine,” as Adams describes it, integrates documents, websites, presentations, sheets, whiteboards, videos, social content, hundreds of millions of photos, illustrations, a rich sound library, and numerous templates, charts, and branding elements.
COS will be upgraded to 2.0, but Adams explained that the critical advancement is the “critical layer in the middle” that fully integrates AI and makes it accessible through various workflows. This provides creative and technical teams with a single dashboard where they can generate, edit, and launch any type of content.
The underlying model is trained to understand “design complexity,” allowing the platform to build different elements such as photos, videos, textures, and 3D graphics in real time to match your brand style without the need for manual adjustments. It also supports live collaboration, so cross-functional teams can collaborate.
For example, a unified dashboard allows users working on a specific design to create new content (such as a presentation) within the same workflow without having to switch to another window or platform. Also, if you generate an image and are not happy with it, you don’t have to go back and start from scratch. Change colors and tones and start editing right away.
Another new feature in COS, Ask Canva, provides direct design advice. Users can tag @Canva to get copy suggestions and smart edits. Alternatively, you can highlight an image and instruct the AI assistant to change it or generate a variant.
“This is a really unique interaction,” Adams said, noting that this AI design partner is always present. “We think this is a true collaboration between humans and AI, and a revolutionary change.”
Other new features include a 2.0 video editor, interactive form and email design with drag-and-drop tools, and more. Additionally, Canva includes Affinity, an integrated app for professional designers that incorporates vector, pixel, and layer workflows, and Affinity is “free forever.”
Intelligence automation, marketing support
Branding is very important for businesses. Canva has introduced new tools that allow organizations to consistently showcase their work across the platform. The new Canva Grow engine integrates business goals into the creative process, so teams can workshop, create, distribute, and improve ads and other materials.
Mr Adams explained: “It automatically scans your website to understand who your audience is, the assets you use to promote your products, the messages you need to send, and the format you want to send them in, then craft your creative. You can deploy it directly to the platform without leaving Canva.”
Marketing teams can now design and launch ads across platforms like Meta, track insights as they occur, and adjust future content based on performance metrics. “Your brand system is now available within the AI you’re working on,” Adams said.
Success metrics and enterprise implementation
The impact of Canva’s COS is reflected in notable user metrics. More than 250 million people use Canva every month, including just over 29 million paid members. Adams reports that 41 billion designs have been created since Canva launched, which equates to 1 billion every month.
“If you break it down, that means a whopping 386 designs are created every second,” Adams says. Whereas, in the early days, it took users about an hour to create a single design.
Canva’s customers include Walmart, Disney, Virgin Voyages, Pinterest, FedEx, Expedia, and eXp Realty. One example is DocuSign, which reported that by fully integrating Canva into content creation, it freed up over 500 hours of team capacity and saved over $300,000 in design time. Disney, on the other hand, uses translation capabilities for internationalization work, Adams said.
Competitors in the design field
Canva thrives in the evolving landscape of professional design tools like Adobe Express and Figma. AI-powered challengers led by Microsoft Designer. This also includes direct-to-consumer alternatives such as Visme and Piktochart.
Adobe Express (Starting at $9.99/month (for premium features) is known for its ease of use and integration with the broader Adobe Creative Cloud ecosystem. Featuring professional templates and access to Adobe’s extensive stock library, it incorporates Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash image model and other gen AI features, allowing designers to create graphics via natural language prompts. Users with some design experience say they prefer the interface, controls, and technical advantages (like the ability to import high-fidelity PDFs) over Canva.
Figma (Starting from $3 per month Professional plans) are touted for real-time collaboration, advanced prototyping features, and tight integration with development workflows. However, some say it is preferable for professional designers, developers, and product teams working on more complex projects because it has a steeper learning curve and more precise design tools.
Microsoft Designer (free version available, but Microsoft 365 subscription starts at ) $9.99/month Unlock additional features), benefit from integration with Microsoft’s AI capabilities, Copilot’s layout and text generation, and image generation powered by Dall-E. The platform’s “Inspire Me” and “New Ideas” buttons offer design variations, and users can also import data from Excel, add 3D models from PowerPoint, and access images from OneDrive.
However, users report that the stock photos, templates, and image libraries are limited compared to Canva’s extensive collection, which can make its visuals seem outdated.
Canva’s advantage seems to be its extensive template library (over 600,000 ready-to-use) and asset library (over 141 million stock photos, videos, graphics, and audio elements). The platform is also rated for its ease of use and non-designer-friendly interface, allowing you to start using it right away without any training.
Canva also extends to a variety of content types, including documents, websites, presentations, whiteboards, and videos, making its platform more than just a graphics tool, but a comprehensive visual suite.
Canva has 4 price ranges: Free for Canva 1 users. Canva Pro costs $120 per person per year. Canva Teams costs $100 per team member per year. and Canva Enterprise with custom pricing.
Key Takeaway: Be open and embrace human-AI collaboration
Canva’s COS is powered by Canva’s Frontier Model, an in-house proprietary engine built on years of research and development and research partnerships, including the acquisition of visual AI company Leonardo. Adams says Canva works with top AI providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
For technology teams, Canva’s approach offers important lessons, including a commitment to openness. “There are so many models out there,” Adams said. He advised that it is important for companies to know when to use top models and when to develop their own models.
For example, OpenAI and Anthropic recently announced integration with Canva as a visual layer. That’s because, as Adams explained, they realized their company didn’t have the ability to create the same kind of editable designs that Canva does. This creates a mutually beneficial ecosystem.
Ultimately, Adams said, “At our core, we have a philosophy that the future is people and technology working together. It’s not an either/or. We want people to be at the center, to be the creative sparks, and to leverage AI as a collaborator.”
