Design platform Canva launched in 2013 with the aim of democratizing visual creation through features like templates and drag-and-drop graphics. It focused on ease, offering a design suite less daunting for nonprofessionals than tools like Adobe’s Photoshop, and simplified access with a web platform and freemium model. Since then, the Sydney-headquartered company has grown to 220 million monthly active users and an 11-figure valuation.
But with the advent of generative AI, it’s having to innovate to keep its place. Cofounder and CEO Melanie Perkins insists she never saw AI as an existential threat and is excited to embrace it: This year, Canva acquired text-to-image generator Leonardo.ai and launched its Magic Studio suite of AI design tools. In October, it launched an AI generator, Dream Lab, which can help users refine their work—changing data into visuals, for instance—or offer design inspiration.
Previously focused on individuals and small businesses, the company is now going after larger corporate clients, acquiring business-focused design platform Affinity in March and courting CIOs with a rap battle that went viral for its extreme levels of cringe. Alongside lofty growth ambitions, Perkins and her cofounder (and husband) Cliff Obrecht have committed to putting most of their equity—totalling 30 percent—into giving back. Perkins told WIRED how they plan to reach both goals. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
WIRED: What was your reaction when generative AI tools emerged, and suddenly designing visuals became as simple as typing a prompt?
MELANIE PERKINS: Canva’s vision has always been to enable you to take your idea and turn it into a design, and reduce the friction between those two points. I think because that has always been our ambition, we were very early to start to adopt AI in our product. The first really big piece for us was with Background Remover [Canva acquired AI background removal tool Kaleido in 2021], and we’ve continued to invest heavily in this space ever since. So when I first saw LLMs and generative AI, it was extraordinarily exciting, because I think it really helps us to achieve that initial mission.
There wasn’t a moment of concern that this might be an existential threat?
No, not at all.
Talk me through your AI game plan …
Original Author: Victoria Turk | Source: Wired
