Visual communication platform Canva has announced a host of new AI-powered design tools and brand management features to help creatives work more efficiently and produce content at scale.
The AI-powered tools will be available to users of Canva’s Visual Worksuite, a suite of workplace products launched by the company in September 2022 that includes Docs, Websites, Whiteboards, Video, and Data Visualization. Since launching Visual Worksuite, Canva says it has seen its monthly user numbers grow to 120 million, up from 35 million in the past six months.
The new tools offered in this latest release include Magic Design, a customizable and curated selection of personalized templates; the ability to add or replace something in an image with Magic Edit; and a Magic Eraser that cleans up unwanted details in images.
Users can also “magically” create new presentations by issuing a prompt to Magic Design, from which it can generate a series of presentations with an outline and content on each slide, the company said.
A new translation tool automatically translates the text in designs into more than 100 different languages, while Beat Synch automatically links video images to a soundtrack. Magic Write, which will be accessible throughout Canva’s Visual Worksuite, creates content such as website copies and presentation summaries from a simple text prompt.
The new Canva assistant searches for standout elements and provides image and layout recommendations, as well as generates custom AI content, the company said.
Every improvement made to Canva supports the company’s vision to build the most intuitive, all-in-one visual communication platform, said Cameron Adams, co-founder and chief product officer of Canva.
“AI is an incredible tool that unlocks new ways for us to do this, but we don’t just add AI,” he said, noting that Canva has been exploring the possibilities of AI and machine learning for more than five years.
“If base models like GPT and Stable Diffusion are suitable, we adapt and build on them,” said Adams. “If they don’t exist, we build our own systems.”
He explained that Magic Write is powered by industry-leading generative AI technology, built in collaboration with Canva’s partners, while an older Canva feature called Text to Image is built on Stable Diffusion.
“We’ve implemented our own robust approach to moderation and safety on top of these models and custom wrappers around them to keep our community safe and deliver the most relevant results,” Adams said.
Providing a centralized hub for branding
Elsewhere, Canva has also expanded the capabilities of the Visual Worksuite by introducing Brand Hub, a centralized hub consisting of new tools and features including templates, folders, controls and guidelines to help designers stay on brand as they work on projects to work.
Brand Folders help keep branding organized and accessible for specific events, campaigns, and teams, while Brand Templates help reduce the need for repetitive design tasks. The new Brand Guidelines tool can be displayed automatically in the Canva editor, and Brand Controls allow admins to limit fonts and colors to ensure each design complies with brand guidelines.
Users can also create a branding kit that includes logos, colors, fonts, icons, images, graphics, and brand guidelines, while a new Magic Replace tool allows creatives to update brand assets across an entire company with one click, from changing the logo in all your company presentations to replacing photography.
While some creatives have recently raised the issue that AI can pose a risk to human creativity, Adams said Canva sees AI as a tool, not something that will complete a job end-to-end.
“For creators, our Magic tools can relieve tedious tasks and create more time to focus on the work they enjoy most,” Adams said, adding that it also allows people to spend more time fine-tuning their vision, and less time wondering how to get started .
The tools Canva announced today will be available to customers starting March 23.
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