Canva Unveils Preview of More Powerful AI Assistant

Canva AI 2.0 has been unveiled in the form of a research preview. It has been significantly enhanced to generate designs through conversation and handle complex tasks by combining multiple tools.

The core is the orchestration layer. When a user states an idea or goal, Canva AI begins designing, and if needed, it can chain together multi-step tasks to produce results such as a multichannel ad campaign.

Editability has also been strengthened.

• All generated visual elements can be edited individually
• Replacing images or adjusting fonts has little effect on other elements
• persistent memory reflects user preferences and style in subsequent outputs
• Provides a context window long enough to maintain consistency through to the final design

New workflows have also been added. It supports connections to pull in data from external apps such as Notion, Slack, Zoom, Gmail, Google Calendar, tasks can be scheduled to run in the background, and a deep research feature is also included.

The existing coding feature has been upgraded to support HTML import. HTML files or AI-generated experiences can be brought into Canva's visual editor and modified without breaking the design. For brands, a tool is also provided that analyzes visual identity and applies it to new and existing designs.

Canva is rolling out these features starting today, giving priority access to the first 1 million website visitors. The AI features on the existing free plan remain unchanged, but an additional AI Pass paid plan offering higher rate limits is also being introduced.