By Beatriz Marie D. Cruz, Reporter
VISUAL COMMUNICATION platform Canva, Inc. on Friday launched Visual Suite 2.0, which streamlines design workflows and leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to provide new tools for creators.
Visual Suite 2.0 is the company’s biggest product launch since its founding in 2013, according to Canva Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Melanie Perkins. The product was unveiled at the Canva Create event at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
“We saw a huge opportunity to make complex things simple and we asked ourselves how we can make AI even more accessible and intuitive,” Canva Co-founder Cameron Adams said in a virtual briefing last week.
“Previously, we saw the pain points of requiring different skills for you to tell a story, visualize your data, gather insights, or even know the formula yourself,” Canva Philippines Country Head Yani Hornilla-Donato told BusinessWorld in a virtual interview. “But now, we’re democratizing all of these skills into clickable tools and buttons, allowing the user to really focus less on the technical ability, but unleash their creativity and critical thinking more.”
Among the features of Visual Suite 2.0 is Visual Suite in One Design, which consolidates design and work tools into a unified workflow, allowing collaboration among multiple users when designing content.
Meanwhile, Canva Sheets organizes data, text, and visual assets into spreadsheets, with users also able to import data from HubSpot, Statista, Google Analytics, among others. Magic Charts converts raw numbers into visuals in seconds through AI, while Magic Studio at Scale allows users to create content in bulk.
The company also unveiled Canva AI, a voice-enabled tool that allows users to generate a design from single prompt, and Canva Code, which lets creators design interactive content without any coding experience.
Lastly, Canva Photo Editor, which is now part of Visual Suite, includes features like AI-powered point and click editing and AI-generated backgrounds.
To ensure the ethical use of AI tools on the platform, Canva Shield provides input and output moderation, safety filters, bias mitigation, and user controls.
Users will also have the option to turn off AI tools based on their needs, especially those in “sensitive” industries, Ms. Perkins added.
“As a company, I would say that Canva has taken a more conservative stance in terms of AI, and by that, I mean really spending time with research, trying to mitigate bias in our AI models, and upholding our values when we integrate or partner with tools that use AI,” Ms. Donato said.
Through the launch of Visual Suite 2.0, Canva is bullish on growing its user base in the Philippines, which is the company’s first market globally to hit one in five Canva users, the official said.
Most Canva users in the Philippines are small and medium enterprises that use the platform for marketing, product showcase, and video content, as well as freelancers, students, teachers, and knowledge workers, Ms. Donato said, adding that they have also seen growing interest from companies.
