Graphic design platform Canva introduced a slate of AI-powered services in March, which led it to confirm its status as one of the most prominent online design tools on the market.
However, its success has been in the making for years.
“It’s not like we turned it on overnight,” Cameron Adams, Canva co-founder and chief product officer told Fast Company, which awarded it the platform as 2023 Design Company of the Year.
According to Adams, Canva's AI journey started six years ago, back when he and his team launched machine learning to recommend designs to users based on their past activity.
In 2021, the design company acquired Kaleido AI, which helped it create a crowd-favorite feature, photo background removal.
Eventually, the design giant saw the opportunity to do more with AI and "unlock new types of creativity." It treated the tech as a "copilot" to every user's tasks - from the ideation stage down to its execution.
A New, AI-Powered Canva
Now, Canva has fully integrated AI across its suite of services.
"Magic," an AI-powered tool part of its Visual Worksuite, introduced users to new features such as "Magic Replace" which can replace any detail in one's designs with the click of a button, "Magic Edit" which can swap objects in a photo for something else, and "Magic Eraser," which removes any subject from an image.
Additionally, "Magic Design" helps both professional and amateur designers by generating a selection of personalized templates based on uploaded images, from birthday cards to business letters.
Canva introduced these features on top of its existing AI-driven tools, such as "text-to-image" and "Magic Write," which it launched in December.
Edited by Nikola Djuric
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