It was early 2024 when Canva announced the acquisition of professional creative software suit affinity. The first is not a major acquisition, but perhaps the most resulting – fruit -flowers (2022), Kaldo (2021), Smartmockups (2021), Pexal (2019) and Pixboy (2019) were already part of the Canva family at this point, lining a strategy, lining a strategy. Smart acquisitionA few months later, in that summer, Canva used his Create Keenot to announce Important update He considered an important piece in Ara to create a full-stack solution for all designers, including professional graphic designers, painters and typographers. Efforts have produced fruits.
Canva tells HT that since the acquisition, intimacy has received more than half a million new users and sent two major updates, versions 2.5 and 2.6, which adds about 50 new features. This, in parallel to the canva, which now, according to the official number, has more than 230 million users in the final count in June. Through canva education, affinity is now completely independent for schools and non-profit organizations worldwide, hoping to bring world-class supporting equipment in classrooms and communities. Canva sees India as a high-affected market for intimacy, citing strong opportunities for new user development. In Indian users, they say that photo and designers are the most popular affinity apps.
In a conversation with HT, Liam Fisher, who is the lead of Pro design marketing in Canva, states that “this is about crafts, creativity, a designer and his unique eye for expansion. We want to ensure that we are not taking anything from that craft.” This is important at a time when interactions about artificial intelligence (AI) often move towards reducing the capabilities of the machine. Fisher tells us that it is important to praise each other for canva and affinity platforms, breaking the tendency of blotware in creative apps, why he believes that we believe that we are watching an AI acquisition, but more development of a tool to help creativity, along with the benefits of a community leading the benefits of a community and Ai morality. Edited excerpt.
Q. Professional designers for years often had to work within the restrictive membership model. Canava’s intimacy acquisition allows it to be better competing with Adobe’s creative devices, for example. In that spectrum, what specific pain points you are trying to address, and how you are fundamentally changing what professional designers should expect from the devices that they use?
Liam Fisher: You have actually hit a nail on the head, that membership models have always been very restrictive. What we have found is that the software in this place is always quite bloated with a lot of unnecessary characteristics, and in fact they are to justify its growing membership. Whatever is done really slows down creativity. Canva and Affinity have taken a separate route, where we are looking at it, which are looking as more basis in access, freedom and performance. We are just giving professional designers an option, and in fact only trying to empower designers, they are not restrictive, which they do and make the best.
Canva and affinity are very align on our missions and values. So when the acquisition was done, it was understood so much. Canva is focused on empowering the workforce like 99% of the workforce with no formal design training, and intimacy has always been focused on 1% of professionals that require accurate and power. Therefore together, every kind of user can take advantage of freedom of allowing various departments within an organization to be able to communicate visually with each other. In Canva we have a tool in the market that allows non-designers to visually communicate, and with affinity, you have found the device that always is for designers. Everyone can work together and speak in the same language.
Q. How has AI changed and improved the apps of intimacy, and what are the major focus areas? Are models in sports developed in-house?
Fisher: From the first day, the mission of Canva has been to empower the world to design. AI has been a major part of that because they want it to be a device, allowing a non-designer to visually communicate and create things that they were not able to create themselves. But, you know, eventually, where intimacy comes, that is that we think professional design is more than just equipment.
It is about craft, creativity, a designer and their unique eye for expansion. We want to make sure that we are not taking anything from that craft, because eventually it is what a professional designer wants to do, this is what they are obsessed with their types of crafts and accuracy. Therefore, this is why intimacy remains the main, it has been given a pro-designer which is accuracy and control that they need to bring their vision into life.
On the other hand, AI in Canva, most of the heavy lifting works. So in fact, when we look at AI and how we are going to integrate it into intimacy, it is a lot about improvement in a designer’s workflow. This year we did this when we introduced our first machine learning features. We are providing a platform that allows professional designers to craft incredibly, well -prepared design and then scales them, adapt them and basically collaborate in canva. So it is really that our mission here is between the two companies. It is not about changing any craft. It is a kind of combination in home and partner technologies that we are working to improve. This is really what we are always trying to do, improvement in the life of a professional designer.
Q. I often say that Canva is not directly in competition with Adobe, but instead, competition in rough form or google, microsoft and also with most AI companies. Do you see it as a big goal on the back?
Fisher: I don’t think it puts a goal on our back, and I don’t think Onas is on us, really. We are focusing on many communities, and our purpose is to create the best tool for the full range of design needs from beginning to professionals. Many other design tools on the market for Pro designers are very bloated, very bloated. Lots of additional features that are unnecessary are slowing down deteriorating performance and creative workflows. We think designers are better than the status quo.
This means that the goal is not on our back. We do not feel that pressure. We are to show people in a different way, an option of status quo with a very powerful option. We have found a broad suit of professional design tools, all are adapted to the latest technology and latest hardware. And it creates that kind of smooth, real -time editing experience, which improves the workflow. The pressure is not really on us.
Q. AI is often designed as a shortcut for creativity. Is it a threat to real creativity, and do you believe that AI is blurring the lines between a generation and creativity?
Fisher: There is no denying that there is a change for creative and all professionals. But we see AI as a tool, this is not an acquisition. Technology has changed creative work for decades, and it has always been the case, when the design was drawn all the way through digital design, then all the ways back. Therefore, innovation such as computer graphics, editing software, they have transferred those job roles, there is no doubt, and this new work has been created.
But human creativity is important, and it is the most important part of it. Design and visual function require that human taste, it requires that vision to innovate. So when it is not actually about a danger or replacement, it is about what is a combination of human creativity with AI to create new opportunities.
Creatives can develop and they can license custom models based on their content, they can mudge. There are lots of opportunities for AI. We are not really looking at it as no acquisition and there is a threat to any kind of creativity. This is a way to free people for being creative.
Q. Canva always creates a point to say that functionality and updated are the community -led community. Is there an underlying loss of that approach to innovation over time?
Fisher: I believe that we are creating a gold standard of user concentrated growth and innovation based on feedback. Whatever we do is anchor to simplify that complex thing. Innovation is directed by millions of people who use it every day, from teachers and small businesses, pro designers, enterprises and teams that ensure that every update addresses the needs of the real world and not just the trends. And feedback loop with our community is incredibly important, and a community lead model helps us priority that most matters.
Instead of building features in isolation, we can build with complete clarity, attention and speed, knowing that it will have an immediate effect. This is how we avoid the bloated feature set, which we often talk about. We invest heavy in long-term innovation in AI Tools, Enterprise-Reddy Solutions, Pro-Design Ability, they all come to the Canva family. It is important for us to meet future needs and try to face challenges. Ultimately, continuous communication with our user base means that we can focus on what really means to them and have immediate effect.
Q. What is Canva’s approach to use data and privacy, and how important it is that AI and morality sight updates regularly over time? Will there be specific areas on which you focus with intimacy application?
Fisher: In canva, trust and security are non -corrupt. We have a canva shield framework, and the foundation of how we contact data and privacy and AI morality. It combines strong safety tools and clear privacy security, and assure our users that they make. We have created multi-layered, safety measures among the partner AI model, with which we work, including material moderation, and we have received both input and output so that creativity is supported responsibly at every stage. On affinity, we ensure that all our users are under control about how their data is used. It is absolutely fundamental, to ensure the decisions around training, transparency and choice.
Investing in ongoing research in prejudice mitigation so that AI outputs reflect diverse and inclusively diverse communities, what do not only do intimacy, but also a large part in the form of canva. With AI, we do not actually stop when just generating materials. Canva is about taking ideas through the last mile of design, refinement, editing and cooperation. Therefore, outputs become meaningful, usable and human centered. We have found the same principle with intimacy, and as we bring professional grade design tools to Canva, AI morality and privacy security scale with them so that we can use affinity app to know the security transparency from creative professional self -confidence and are under user control. And it has always been a part of our values from day one.
