But the layoffs highlight an inescapable contradiction. Even those responsible for the ubiquity of AI image generation are suffering from its expansion. Rather than a push for growth and innovation, Adobe and Canva's rollout of AI tools feels more their own desperate fight for survival, and it's a fight they might not be able to win.
https://www.creativebloq.com/news/canvas-mass-layoffs-are-a-warning-sign-for-creative-tech
Canva is leaning into this paradigm in the latest version of its Canva AI assistant, which uses its AI model to let users create editable designs with text prompts. Users can describe what they want it to make, and the bot will call the required tools and come up with a few options. The assistant uses layers to make designs, which gives users the flexibility to tweak different aspects of the final product as they see fit.
https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/16/canvas-ai-assistant-can-now-call-various-tools-to-make-designs-for-you/
Love it or loathe it, Canva has become a staple for creatives seeking a quick and simple design platform. Shedding the sexy yet stuffy branding of leading graphic design software like Adobe and Figma, Canva's latest tool embraces its playful, user-friendly image with its new "Chronically Online" mode.
https://www.creativebloq.com/design/is-canvas-cringey-gen-z-mode-secretly-genius
When graphic design platform-provider Canva bought the Affinity image-editing and publishing apps early last year, we had some major questions about how the companies’ priorities and products would mesh. This week, Canva gave us definitive answers to all of those questions: a brand-new unified Affinity app that melds the Photo, Designer, and Publisher apps into a single piece of software called “Affinity by Canva” that is free to use with a Canva user account, but which gates generative AI features behind Canva’s existing paid subscription plans ($120 a year for individuals).
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/canvas-new-affinity-app-is-free-to-use-but-locks-ai-features-behind-a-subscription/
Canva is launching its latest smorgasbord of generative AI-powered workspace tools in its attempt to cram everything that Microsoft, Google, and Adobe can do into a single platform. Canva’s Visual Suite is being redesigned to combine its design and productivity tools into a single interface, alongside adding new coding, photo editing, spreadsheet, and AI chatbot features.
https://www.theverge.com/news/646682/canva-visual-suite-2-0-ai-spreadsheets-creative-workspace
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Canva has added a bunch of new AI features to its web-based design platform, including updates for generating text and video effects and a more powerful text-to-image app. The latter is called “Dream Lab” — a new image generator tool born from Canva’s acquisition of generative AI startup Leonardo.ai earlier this year.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/22/24276662/canva-ai-update-new-text-to-image-generator-leonardo
The company has established itself as a simpler, more affordable alternative to legacy design software, but the “more affordable” part of the equation is becoming a little less true, with some Canva Teams subscribers seeing their pricing go from $120 per year to $500 per year — an increase of 300%.
https://techcrunch.com/video/techcrunch-minute-canva-faces-backlash-over-price-hikes/