As businesses shift toward AI-accelerated creativity and global teams collaborate across formats, Canva is reframing itself as the hub where imagination becomes production. The company says we're entering an “Imagination Era” where AI amplifies creativity rather than replacing it, and brands need tools that scale visual storytelling across formats, platforms, and teams.

This release marks Canva’s largest platform expansion, reframing Canva not only as a design app but as a connected ecosystem that blends design, AI, content marketing, brand management, and collaboration into one creative operating system.

More than ten years after launching with a mission to make design accessible to everyone, Canva says this new platform is its next major step in democratizing creativity — empowering individuals and businesses to turn ideas into impact faster and on a larger scale.

The new Creative Operating System centers on a dramatically expanded Visual Suite designed to help users create faster, collaborate more fluidly, and unify creative workflows across formats. The launch advances Canva from a design tool into an integrated workspace for content, marketing, data, and brand execution.

Canva is introducing a full rebuild of its video editing experience with Video 2.0, designed to merge professional-grade controls with Canva’s signature simplicity. The redesigned timeline editor supports more precise trimming, layering, and sound syncing.

Creators can also use Magic Video, which automatically transforms uploaded clips and a short prompt into a polished edit. Canva says a growing library of on-trend templates inspired by leading TikTok, Reels, and Shorts styles, paired with AI tools that automate cuts, effects, and pacing, make it possible to start and finish projects faster than before so creators never have to start from scratch again.

And because all editing happens inside Canva, creators maintain full control over brand assets and output. Videos remain watermark-free, brand-aligned, and ready to publish anywhere — without exporting to separate platforms for finishing.

Canva is expanding beyond visual design into interactive and data-driven experiences that live directly inside the editor.

With Canva Forms, users can now drag and drop fully customizable forms into their designs and Canva Websites — no external tools or integrations required. Teams can collect responses for RSVPs, sign-ups, surveys, feedback, and bookings, while keeping brand styling consistent across every touchpoint.

Responses feed directly into Canva Sheets, where creators can organize inputs, filter information, visualize results, and take action — without switching platforms or exporting data.

Meanwhile, Canva Code now connects to Canva Sheets and operates directly inside the Canva editor; these features were unveiled at Canva Create. Users can customize interactive projects with brand-aligned colors, fonts, layouts, and visuals, then publish them as standalone websites with unique URLs — no embedding or external hosting required.

This update introduces simple web-experience creation into Canva, enabling teams to design functional, data-powered tools without technical overhead.

Together, Forms, Sheets, and Code bring a no-code interactivity layer into Canva, allowing users to collect information, manage data, and publish lightweight, branded interactive experiences — moving Canva beyond static design into dynamic, functional content workflows.

While Canva’s standalone publishing option makes interactive content accessible for users without existing web infrastructure, established brands and media organizations will likely continue embedding forms and interactive modules on their own domains to preserve trust, maintain SEO authority, and ensure a consistent brand experience. In practice, Canva appears to be positioning this capability primarily for lightweight micro-experiences, rather than as a replacement for enterprise-level web infrastructure.

One of the most requested features is finally here: Canva Email Design allows users to build polished, responsive email campaigns inside the editor, complete with brand-aligned templates, drag-and-drop components, and AI-assisted image and copy generation. Users can preview layouts, send a test email, and then export clean HTML compatible with major email platforms.

At the center of this launch is the Canva Design Model, which Canva calls the first AI system trained specifically to understand end-to-end design structure. Unlike AI models that generate flat, static images, the Design Model recognizes layout, hierarchy, branding elements, and visual logic. The result is fully editable projects created in seconds, giving users instant starting points rather than finished files they need to rebuild.

This model now powers the next generation of Canva AI across the Visual Suite, accelerating the path from idea to finished asset. Canva is also extending access beyond its platform, making the model available inside tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and soon Gemini — reflecting a broader strategy to set a standard for editable, brand-consistent AI design across the web.

Beyond the Creative Operating System vision, Canva is introducing a wave of AI tools designed to turn ideas into production-ready assets faster, while keeping every output editable and on-brand. These capabilities emphasize speed, flexibility, and real-time creative support across formats.

Instead of starting with a blank canvas, users can now generate full, editable designs with a prompt for presentations, websites, social posts, videos, and documents. Each output respects layout rules, hierarchy, and branding elements, providing a structured starting point that can be customized instantly.

From icons and shapes to photos, textures, 3D objects, and even small pieces of interactive code, AI-Powered Elements generate individual components directly inside the editor. A new 3D Content Generator introduces depth and dimensionality for more immersive visual assets, while a Shape Generator creates custom shapes beyond standard libraries. These tools sit alongside an expanded collection of ready-made creative elements, giving users a modular, on-demand asset system that adapts to each project instead of relying solely on pre-built content.

Magic Background analyzes the subject and style of a design and generates complementary scenes, textures, or environments that slot seamlessly into the composition. It’s built to remove the friction of searching for background images and allows teams to maintain consistent storytelling across formats.

Style Match automatically applies the look, feel, and brand characteristics of one design to another, unifying fonts, colors, and visual tone in a single step. This helps teams scale content creation while staying brand-consistent, especially across large content pipelines and campaign workflows.

Ask @Canva acts as an in-editor creative collaborator, offering real-time design support. Users can tag @Canva in comments to request design revisions, ask for new visuals, refine copy, or explore creative alternatives. Rather than interrupting workflow, guidance and generation happen directly inside the canvas, with context-aware suggestions tuned to brand settings.

Together, these AI-driven tools are designed to keep creativity moving without forcing users to switch contexts, rebuild AI-generated content, or adjust assets manually — reinforcing Canva’s goal of pairing automation with human-led creative direction.

Canva’s AI capabilities extend beyond the editor, with new tools designed to guide users before the creative process even begins. From the homepage, Guided Presentations introduce a conversational experience that helps users define goals, clarify messaging, and outline narrative structure before choosing a template. The result is a more intentional creative workflow, where strategy and story come first and visuals follow naturally.

For enterprise teams, Team Context surfaces brand-relevant content from your Canva files and other company assets directly in the design environment, ensuring teams work with approved messaging, imagery, and brand elements.

Integrations with Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and other cloud platforms bring external brand and content resources into the creative workspace, allowing AI suggestions to reflect real company materials and institutional knowledge.

These upgrades move Canva beyond a design tool toward a fully connected creative platform. With centralized brand systems, campaign planning tools, and AI-driven content support, Canva is positioning itself as a unified hub for brand management, content creation, and performance execution at scale — especially for growing teams and global organizations focused on consistent, high-velocity storytelling.

For years, marketing teams have juggled disjointed workflows — brainstorming in one tool, designing in another, publishing through a third, and monitoring performance somewhere else entirely. Canva Grow consolidates this end-to-end process into a single, AI-enabled environment built for fast, on-brand campaign execution.

The journey begins with strategic inspiration. Users can browse a library of high-performing ads from relevant industries, analyze creative trends, and remix proven concepts into new campaign ideas. From there, Canva Grow scans a company’s website to understand brand identity — including colors, tone, and messaging — and uses that context to automatically generate multiple ad variants aligned to campaign goals. Creators can publish instantly or refine designs within Canva’s editor for final polish.

When campaigns are ready, teams can publish directly to Meta from Canva, with support for additional ad platforms on the way. There’s no exporting, uploading, or switching tools — campaign launch happens in the same workspace where ideas were created.

To complete the loop, Canva Grow connects to a brand’s ad accounts to surface real-time performance insights and AI-powered optimization suggestions. Marketers can pinpoint what’s resonating, identify underperforming content, and receive recommendations on how to iterate — turning analytics into action without leaving the platform.

As organizations expand, maintaining brand quality and consistency across teams, channels, and markets becomes increasingly complex. Canva’s updated Brand System is built to streamline that challenge by giving creative and non-creative teams a centralized, flexible space to manage every element of their brand identity.

At the core of this system is the redesigned Brand Kit homepage, which serves as a visual control center for brand assets and creative standards. Teams can organize logos, font sets, color palettes, templates, photography guidelines, tone-of-voice frameworks, and usage rules in one structured environment designed to reflect how their organization works. The layout is customizable, allowing companies to adapt the system as their brand evolves.

Brand guidance also now appears directly inside the Canva editor, surfacing approved assets and creative direction at the moment teams need them. Instead of hunting for brand files or manuals, users receive contextual reminders and in-editor prompts aligned to brand rules, helping teams stay consistent as they work.

AI elevates this workflow further. Once a Brand Kit is connected, Canva AI automatically applies brand identity to generated designs, producing layouts that reflect the organization’s style, colors, fonts, tone, and visual language from the start. Instead of retrofitting templates or manually adjusting AI outputs, users begin every project fully aligned with brand standards — accelerating time to publish while protecting consistency.

Canva is also redefining professional design access with the all-new Affinity suite, which now brings advanced photo editing, vector design, and page layout tools together in a single, high-performance platform built for precision and creative control. The entire experience has been re-engineered for speed and responsiveness, letting users design, edit, and publish complex projects in real time without workflow interruptions.

Affinity continues to support non-destructive editing, giving creators the flexibility to experiment with photos, illustrations, typography, and multi-page documents without altering original assets. Users can also personalize their workspace, tailoring panels, tools, and layouts to their creative process while seamlessly switching between tasks — from fine-tuning vector paths to laying out publication spreads — without breaking flow.

A new integration layer connects Affinity and Canva, allowing professionals to refine assets with Affinity’s advanced tooling and then move them directly into Canva for collaboration, publishing, and distribution. Every file can travel between platforms, bridging precision design workflows with Canva’s AI, brand tools, and publishing ecosystem.

Additionally, Canva AI tools are now embedded directly in Affinity via the new Canva AI Studio, enabling creators to access generative features within the professional editing environment — from content suggestions to automatic design assistance — with no extra setup.

In a major shift for the creative software market, Affinity is now completely free for everyone, forever, positioning the suite as a professional-grade alternative to traditional paid design tools and reinforcing Canva’s mission to make advanced creative capabilities accessible to every designer, business, and visual storyteller.

Q: Is this launch meant to replace traditional pro design software?
A: Canva says its mission is accessibility, but this launch also ups professional capabilities through Affinity integration and advanced design AI.

Q: How does the Canva Design Model differ from other generative AI?
A: It produces fully editable designs with layers, structure, fonts, and brand logic — not fixed images.

Q: Is this only for marketers and designers?
A: Canva positions it for creators, marketers, enterprises, and educators, spanning content, brand management, and web tools.

Q: How will Canva Grow change marketing workflows?
A: Canva Grow combines campaign inspiration, creative production, publishing, and performance analytics in one workspace, reducing tool switching and speeding up iteration cycles.

Q: What does making Affinity free mean for the industry?
A: Making Affinity free lowers cost barriers for advanced editing and expands access to professional-grade creative tools — while still connecting users into the broader Canva ecosystem for publishing and collaboration.

For years, creative work has been shaped by who had access to complex software, training, and production resources. This launch flips that model. Canva’s Creative Operating System brings advanced design, video editing, branding, marketing intelligence, and interactive creation into one place — without requiring technical expertise or expensive licensing.

The biggest takeaway is not just more features. It’s a shift in who gets to participate:

While enterprise design platforms will continue to serve specialized creative needs, Canva is building a path where imagination — not software barriers — determines what people can create. The result is a world where creativity becomes a core skill across roles, industries, and levels of experience, much like writing or communication.

People and businesses who learn to pair their ideas with these tools will move faster, iterate more confidently, and bring concepts to life at a scale that simply wasn’t possible a decade ago.

The opportunity is clear: creativity is becoming more democratized, more collaborative, and more central to how organizations tell their stories and compete. This era isn’t about replacing designers — it’s about giving more people the power to think visually, communicate clearly, and build with imagination at the center.

Editor’s Note: This article was created by Alicia Shapiro, CMO of AiNews.com, with writing, image, and idea-generation support from ChatGPT, an AI assistant used for research and drafting. However, the final perspective and editorial choices are solely Alicia Shapiro’s. Special thanks to ChatGPT for assistance with research and editorial support in crafting this article.