Canva launches unique design model, adds new AI capabilities to platform

Creative suite company Canva on Thursday launched its own design model that understands today’s different layers and formats for enhanced functionality. The company also introduced new product forms, updates to its AI assistant, and the ability to create widgets to capture repeatable insights using Sheet’s coding tools.

Canva said it launches its own base model trained on elements and compared to flat images to generate designs with editable layers and objects. He said the model works in a variety of formats, including social media posts, presentations, whiteboards and websites.

“We started by creating flat images using a diffusion model. The Omni model takes that a step further and allows us to highly edit these flat images through prompts. But when you use a tool, you’re prompted to get to the end result, which is difficult as a visual medium,” Robert Kawalski, Canva’s global head of product, told TechCrunch by phone.

“What we’ve found is that where people want to be is the ability to really blend this idea of ​​starting with a prompt and reaching far, but also being able to iterate directly on their own.”

Build more AI capabilities into Canva

Earlier this year, the company announced an AI assistant called Canva AI with a chat-like interface for generating new media items using prompts. The platform now makes its assistant available across screens, including the Design and Elements tabs.

Users can also mention the bot in comments to get text and media suggestions when working on projects with other users. Additionally, AI tools can now generate 3D objects and copy the art style of your design.

Earlier this year, the company added a spreadsheet product and the ability for users to create mini-apps through prompts. Now, these two products are connected, allowing users to take data stored in spreadsheets and create widgets from it.

Canva also acquired an advertising analytics company called MagicBrief earlier this year. Canva is launching a full-stack marketing platform called Canva Grow that uses AI for both asset creation and analysis, using a proprietary creation platform and new measurement tools. It also allows marketers to publish ads directly to platforms like Meta.

New products and features

In addition to its AI capabilities, the Australian design company announced several new products and features to its platform. Instead of using Google Forms, users can now create forms in Canva and get different types of input from clients and people.

The company is also adding email design to its platform, allowing users to create templates and layouts for marketing and package tracking emails according to their brand aesthetic.

Last year, Canva acquired pro design tool Affinity to better compete with Adobe. With this release, the company announced that it will make the tool free to users forever.

Canva is also redesigning its Affinity interface to combine vector, pixel, and layout understanding into one interface. Affinity and Canva are also tightly integrated, allowing designers to create objects in Pro Tools and move them to the latter. The company says users can also generate images and designs within Affinity using Canva AI.