Canva has unveiled its own design model — a foundational system that understands design layers and formats — alongside a wave of new AI-driven tools and product updates aimed at enhancing creativity and productivity across its platform.

 

The new model, trained on Canva’s extensive library of design elements, generates editable designs with layers and objects instead of flat images. It supports multiple formats, including social media posts, presentations, whiteboards, and websites.

 

“We started by creating flat images with diffusion models. Omni models took that further by enabling sophisticated edits through prompting,” said Robert Kawalsky, Canva’s Global Head of Product, in an interview with TechCrunch. “But visual design shouldn’t rely solely on prompting — users want to start with a prompt and then refine directly themselves.”

 

Canva’s AI assistant, Canva AI, introduced earlier this year, now integrates across the entire platform. Users can access it within design and elements tabs, tag it in comments using @mention for creative suggestions, and use it to generate 3D objects or replicate the art style of existing designs.

 

The company is also expanding its data tools: its spreadsheet product now connects with its app builder, allowing users to turn spreadsheet data into dynamic, visual widgets.

 

Another major development is Canva Grow, an all-in-one AI-powered marketing suite built on Canva’s creation tools and its recent acquisition of ad analytics firm MagicBrief. The platform enables marketers to both design and measure campaign performance — and even publish ads directly to Meta platforms.

 

Canva also rolled out new features like form creation (as an alternative to Google Forms) and email design templates for branded marketing or transactional messages.

 

Following its acquisition of Affinity, Canva announced that the professional design suite will now be free forever. The company is integrating Affinity more closely with Canva, merging vector, pixel, and layout tools into a unified interface. Designers will soon be able to move creations seamlessly between Affinity and Canva — and even use Canva AI within Affinity to generate new visuals or layouts.

 

With these updates, Canva is positioning itself as a comprehensive, AI-first creative ecosystem — one that bridges casual creators, marketers, and professional designers on a single, powerful platform.