Canva Launches World-First AI Design Model, Upgrades Platform with New AI Features

The popular online design platform Canva has unveiled its most significant product expansion to date, launching a new "Creative Operating System" powered by its own proprietary AI model.

The new "Canva Design Model" is being called the world's first foundational AI model trained specifically to understand the complexities of design. Unlike generative AI models that produce static, "flat" images, Canva's new model generates fully editable, layered designs, allowing users to modify every element, from text to layout, after it's created.

This move marks a major strategic shift for the Australian-based company, positioning it to compete directly with other tech giants in the generative AI space while consolidating its platform as a one-stop-shop for creativity.

A New "Creative Operating System"
The Canva Design Model is the engine behind a host of new and enhanced AI features integrated across the platform, which Canva is branding as its new "Creative Operating System."

Key new AI features announced include:

AI-Powered Designs: Users can now generate a complete, editable design—such as a presentation, social media post, or website—from a simple text prompt. The AI model handles the structure, layout, and visual logic, creating a design that is ready to be refined, not just viewed.

AI-Powered Elements: Directly within the editor, users can now use text prompts to generate a wide array of content, including photos, videos, icons, 3D graphics, and custom shapes.

Style Match: A new capability that allows the AI to instantly unify a design by matching the look and feel of other elements, ensuring a cohesive and on-brand final product.

"Ask @Canva": The platform's AI assistant, Canva AI, is now integrated directly into the design process. Users can tag "@Canva" in a comment to receive real-time design feedback, copy suggestions, or creative ideas without leaving their workflow.

New Tools for Marketers and Professionals
Alongside the AI model, Canva announced several other major product upgrades:

Canva Grow: A new, end-to-end marketing platform. Following its acquisition of the ad analytics firm MagicBrief, Canva Grow will allow marketing teams to design, publish, and track the performance of ad campaigns directly within Canva, including publishing to platforms like Meta.

Video 2.0: A completely rebuilt video editor with a redesigned timeline and new AI tools like "Magic Video," which can generate a polished video from a single prompt.

Affinity Made Free: In a major move to attract professional designers, Canva announced that the Affinity suite—its professional-grade photo editing, vector, and layout software acquired last year—will now be completely free for all users.

This aggressive expansion combines powerful, accessible AI with a comprehensive suite of creative and marketing tools, signaling Canva's ambition to be the default platform for all forms of visual communication, from casual users to large enterprises.