Why IT Leaders Should Pay Attention to Canva’s “Imagination Era” Strategy
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how organizations approach creativity, design, and productivity. One company at the forefront of this shift is Canva, which has introduced what it calls the “imagination era.” For IT leaders and digital innovators, this represents not just a new wave of creativity but a significant evolution in how humans and machines collaborate. Canva’s new Creative Operating System (COS) aims to redefine enterprise design workflows, automate brand intelligence, and empower teams to turn ideas into visual reality faster than ever before.
From the Information Age to the Imagination Era
For decades, the digital economy has been defined by the relentless pursuit of information and processing power. But according to Canva co-founder and Chief Product Officer Cameron Adams, the rise of AI marks an essential turning point where creativity becomes the new competitive advantage. Adams calls this next phase the “imagination era”—a time when individuals and enterprises will use AI not just to process data but to bring bold, transformative ideas to life.
In this emerging era, technology no longer serves as a barrier between inspiration and execution. Instead, platforms like Canva are using AI to eliminate friction from design processes, enabling creative professionals and business users alike to visualize concepts, collaborate in real time, and deploy campaigns faster than ever before.
Inside Canva’s Creative Operating System (COS)
At the heart of this transformation is the Canva Creative Operating System (COS), which integrates AI across every layer of the content creation process. Rather than a simple design tool, Canva now positions itself as an all-in-one creativity platform that centralizes assets, workflows, and intelligence for enterprises of any size.
Three Layers of the New Design Ecosystem
Adams describes COS as a three-tiered structure:
- The Visual Suite Layer: Home to Canva’s core creative tools — including templates, images, presentations, and video editors.
- The Collaborative AI Plane: The middle layer that embeds AI into every workflow, enabling co-creation, real-time feedback, and content automation.
- The Proprietary Model Layer: The underlying AI engine trained to understand the complexity of design and brand consistency.
This integrated system allows users to effortlessly move between design types — from documents to web pages or videos — without switching windows or apps. A marketer working on a social post can instantly pivot to create a matching presentation or campaign landing page, maintaining consistent branding throughout.
The COS 2.0 Upgrade: Human-AI Collaboration Reimagined
The COS 2.0 release introduces advanced AI capabilities that make design more dynamic and responsive. Canva’s proprietary model now understands visual context, allowing it to generate or modify photos, textures, or 3D graphics that align precisely with brand standards. The platform also supports live, cross-departmental collaboration, creating a unified space for designers, writers, and marketers to co-create content in real time.
One standout feature is “Ask Canva” — an AI-powered assistant that gives real-time design advice. Users can tag @Canva to refine copy, adjust images, or generate visual variations instantly. As Adams describes it, this feature fosters a “true collaboration between people and AI.”
Expanded Tools for Pro Designers
Canva’s acquisition of Affinity further broadens its appeal for professional designers. Affinity integrates vector, pixel, and layout workflows into Canva’s ecosystem — and notably, its full version is free forever for existing users. With the new 2.0 video editor and drag-and-drop form builder, the platform now covers nearly every aspect of digital content creation.
Transforming Marketing and Branding Through Automated Intelligence
For enterprise leaders, brand consistency and agility are top priorities. Canva’s latest feature suite directly addresses this with the Canva Grow engine, which integrates business objectives into the design process. This tool automatically scans an organization’s website and assets to understand its aesthetics, messaging tone, and audience demographics — then generates optimized creative content aligned with those factors.
Adams explains that Canva Grow even allows marketers to design, deploy, and measure ad campaigns from a single interface. It connects directly to platforms like Meta and provides real-time analytics, enabling teams to refine their messaging based on audience engagement and performance metrics. By keeping brand assets within the AI pipeline, Canva ensures that enterprises maintain voice, tone, and visual consistency across departments and channels.
Proven Results and Enterprise Adoption
Canva’s momentum in the enterprise sector has been unprecedented. As of 2024, the platform boasts over 250 million monthly users, with 29 million of them on paid plans. Collectively, users have generated more than 41 billion designs since Canva’s launch — equating to roughly 386 new designs every second.
Corporate giants such as Disney, FedEx, Walmart, Virgin Voyages, Pinterest, and DocuSign rely on Canva for large-scale content creation. DocuSign alone reported saving $300,000 and reclaiming over 500 hours of team productivity after fully integrating the platform into its marketing workflows. Disney, meanwhile, uses Canva’s translation capabilities to streamline international content production across regional teams.
Competition in the AI-Powered Design Landscape
While Canva leads the pack in AI-driven content design, it operates in a rapidly evolving market alongside strong competitors like Adobe Express, Figma, and Microsoft Designer.
- Adobe Express: Available from $9.99/month, it features integration with Creative Cloud and access to Adobe Stock. Its use of Google’s Gemini 2.5 Flash AI model allows text-to-image creation via natural language prompts.
- Figma: Starting at $3/month, it’s favored for advanced prototyping, developer collaboration, and high-precision design work. Its learning curve is steeper but ideal for product and UX teams.
- Microsoft Designer: Integrated with Microsoft 365 subscriptions (from $9.99/month), it harnesses Copilot and DALL·E-powered image generation. However, its stock library remains limited compared to Canva’s 140+ million assets.
Where Canva outperforms is breadth and accessibility. With over 600,000 templates and an intuitive interface tailored to both designers and non-designers, it eliminates typical barriers to entry. Combined with AI-driven automation and collaboration tools, it offers a uniquely scalable solution for enterprises seeking visual efficiency.
Pricing and Accessibility
Canva provides several flexible plans suitable for individuals and teams:
- Canva Free – ideal for personal use and small projects.
- Canva Pro – $120/year for individuals needing advanced features.
- Canva Teams – $100/year per team member, enabling shared branding and collaboration tools.
- Canva Enterprise – custom pricing for large organizations requiring governance, brand kits, and security controls.
Balancing Openness and Proprietary Innovation
Underneath its COS, Canva operates a proprietary frontier model developed from extensive in-house R&D and key partnerships with visual AI pioneer Leonardo. Canva also collaborates with leading AI providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google to combine external models with its design engine’s domain specialization.
Adams advises IT leaders to adopt a similar hybrid approach: leverage best-in-class external AI models when possible, while developing proprietary networks where brand or operational differentiation requires it. This balance between openness and control can future-proof organizations as AI ecosystems continue to evolve.
Key Lessons for IT Leaders in the Imagination Era
Canva’s transformation offers valuable insights for technology teams shaping their own digital creativity strategies:
- Human-AI collaboration drives innovation: Design and creativity thrive when AI handles repetitive tasks, freeing people to focus on ideation and storytelling.
- Centralized design ecosystems reduce inefficiency: A unified platform cuts down on tool-switching and version control issues.
- Brand consistency depends on automation: Intelligent systems like Canva Grow help enforce brand standards across regions and teams.
- Data-informed creativity strengthens outcomes: By tying campaign analytics directly to creative tools, organizations gain actionable insights to optimize designs.
Conclusion: Creativity Meets Technology
As businesses embrace the “imagination era,” Canva exemplifies how human creativity and AI can form a