Australian design software company Canva Inc. has introduced a range of artificial intelligence-powered tools to compete with rivals like Adobe Inc. One of its notable features is the ability to instantly convert designs from one format to another with a single click. For instance, users can transform a presentation into a summary or create a blog post from brainstorming notes, even translating the content into multiple languages. Canva’s tools can also convert text into images and generate videos from either images or text using Gen-2, a video-generation model developed by Runway AI Inc.
CEO Melanie Perkins stated that Canva has introduced more than 10 new AI products, addressing significant gaps in their global user community’s workflows. Canva’s user base has experienced a 20% growth since March, reaching 150 million users, with 16 million subscribers.
This new suite, called Magic Studio, follows a series of Canva’s product launches over the past year, including enterprise-focused tools in September 2022 and AI software in March. Canva, founded about a decade ago, competes directly with Adobe, a long-standing leader in creative software for graphic arts professionals. Adobe, established four decades ago, has incorporated generative AI features into its products and has seen a 50% increase in market capitalization this year, reaching $231 billion.
Canva has introduced exciting enhancements to its Magic Media tool, previously known as text to image. Now, powered by Runway AI, it offers a text-to-video feature, allowing users to create short videos from text prompts or existing images in Canva’s library. These videos can be utilized on the platform or exported as MP4 or GIF files for other projects. Moreover, Magic Media’s text-to-image function has been updated to offer a diverse range of style options for various results.
In addition to these updates, Canva has incorporated new photo editing tools. One such tool is Magic Grab, which can automatically select and separate subjects in images, enabling easy editing, repositioning, or resizing. Another tool, Magic Expand, expands images beyond their frames, akin to Adobe’s Generative Expand tool for Photoshop. Furthermore, Canva users can explore alternative AI image generation apps like OpenAI’s DALL-E and Google’s Imagen through Canva’s app marketplace. For a comprehensive list of all the new tools available in Magic Studio, you can refer to Canva’s official website.
Canva has announced its new Magic Studio products, and according to Adams, these products have not been trained using Canva Creators’ data. The company is in the process of updating its contributor agreement to clarify how creator data will be utilized. Canva is introducing an upfront opt-out option for Creators, allowing them to choose not to participate. By default, creators will be opted in, but they have a 30-day notification period during which their data will not be used if they opt out.
This move by Canva comes after Adobe recently introduced a similar compensation program for Adobe Stock contributors, likely in response to concerns raised by creatives who believe AI is benefiting unfairly from their work.
Canva’s expansion into the realm of visual worksuites and AI-powered brand management tools in recent months positions the company as a strong competitor to industry giants like Adobe. Canva’s user-friendly design platform currently boasts 16 million paying subscribers and a staggering 150 million users globally. Although Adobe has incorporated new AI features into its web-based design app, Adobe Express, it may need to take further steps to compete with Canva’s growing popularity.