Canva transforms into ‘Creative OS’: Integrating Affinity and AI to challenge Adobe
The Australian design platform Canva has reached a significant milestone. The company has unveiled a new AI model “specialized in design”, along with a suite of tools aimed at making Canva much more than a simple creation application: a true “Creative Operating System” for marketing teams and creators.
Canva: An AI model designed to grasp design complexity
Canva claims to have developed a proprietary foundational AI model trained on the visual elements of its own platform. Unlike traditional image generation models, this one understands layers, objects, and formats, allowing for the production of editable and modular designs rather than just flat images.
“We wanted to move beyond static image generation to offer dynamic and editable creations,” explains Robert Kawalsky, global product lead at Canva.
This model works seamlessly across all media—social networks, presentations, whiteboards, or websites—and combines text generation with manual editing.
Canva AI: The creative assistant becomes ubiquitous
The Canva AI assistant, which was launched earlier this year, is now integrated across all sections of the platform:
- It can be mentioned in comments to suggest text, visuals, or ideas.
- It generates 3D objects and can mimic an artistic style from an existing design.
- It integrates into the Design and Elements tabs to streamline creation without leaving the interface.
Canva AI thus acts as a true creative co-pilot, available at every stage of the process.
A revamped video editor for non-experts
The Video 2.0 update radically simplifies editing:
- A new library of templates for social or professional content,
- An intuitive timeline for cutting, synchronizing, and layering clips,
- The addition of AI effects and automatic transitions to enliven projects.
Canva aims to make video production accessible to all, without advanced technical skills.
Canva Grow: A comprehensive marketing platform
Another major novelty is Canva Grow: An all-in-one marketing AI solution.
It allows users to:
- Create, launch, and analyze advertising campaigns,
- Publish directly on platforms like Meta,
- And importantly, utilize an AI that learns from past performances to optimize future campaigns.
Canva also integrates MagicBrief, an advertising analytics company acquired earlier this year, to provide precise performance metrics.
Email Design & Forms: New office tools
Canva continues its conquest of Google and Microsoft with:
- Email Design, for creating professional email campaigns without going through Mailchimp or other tools,
- Forms, a direct equivalent to Google Forms, for collecting feedback and automatically importing the data into Canva Sheets.
Thanks to the connection between Sheets and data widgets, it is now possible to create custom mini-analytical applications directly in Canva.
The integration of Affinity: A weapon against Adobe
Since its acquisition of Affinity, Canva has deeply integrated it into its ecosystem:
- Users can now create in Affinity and import their objects into Canva.
- The Affinity interface has been redesigned to unify vector, pixel, and layout work.
- And importantly, Affinity becomes free for all users.
In this way, Canva aligns its tools with professional standards while focusing on simplicity and collaboration.
An all-in-one platform, but not à la carte
Despite this expansion, Canva confirms that it will not offer a modular subscription: users cannot choose the tools they utilize. This “full suite” approach is designed to strengthen system coherence but may frustrate those who only use a portion of the functions.
With these innovations, Canva positions itself as a direct competitor to Adobe and Google Workspace, combining creation, management, and marketing into a single platform. The Australian company aims to transform how teams design and distribute content, placing AI at the center of the creative process.
Canva is no longer just a consumer design tool—it has now become a genuine ecosystem for production and creative intelligence.
