Australia’s Canva adds AI tools to take on Microsoft, Google

Canva, which acquired Austrian AI startup Kaleido in 2021, is now joining the race to push generative AI features into widely used software applications. — Image by jannoon028 on Freepik

Australian design software company Canva Inc is accelerating its expansion into digital workplace products, adding artificial intelligence tools to its suite to better compete against Microsoft Corp and Google.

The closely held firm launched a wide range of AI-powered tools at an event in Sydney on Thursday. Canva’s 125 million users can lean on them to create presentations by writing a description of the slides they want to see. They can also get recommendations for pictures and layouts, generate custom AI content, and automatically translate the text in designs to over 100 different languages.