‘India is at the forefront of AI use’: Robert Kawalsky on Canva AI 2.0 launch

When asked what specific product decisions have gone into making Canva AI 2.0 and whether Indian users influenced them, Kawalsky affirmed that the Indian community has some of the most advanced and prolific users of AI. “There’s an incredibly strong appetite. India is actually the second-ranked market globally for usage of Canva AI. It is an incredibly innovative market, really at the forefront,” he said.

The Canva executive said that Magic Write, an embedded writing assistant within the platform, is one of the top AI writing tools in India.

Canva AI 2.0 marks a fundamental repositioning of the design platform, moving from a tool-first approach to an AI-driven collaborative experience. The shift represents a significant architectural change for the widely used design platform. “It’s now really a design platform – truly an AI platform with design tools accessible to what is a fully agentic, conversational experience,” Kawalsky explained. Canva is framing the update as putting “a creative partner in your pocket” that can guide users through the entire design workflow.

A new approach to AI-assisted design

Unlike previous iterations, where AI features were integrated as separate tools, Canva AI 2.0 introduces what the company calls an “agentic orchestration layer”. According to Kawalsky, this transforms the user experience from what was essentially “one shot over and over again” to the way you would collaborate with a world-class designer.

The platform’s design agent produces fully editable designs rather than static images, a distinction Kawalsky emphasised as unique to Canva’s approach. “Anything that comes out is not an image—it’s actually a design which is fully editable as a human,” he noted, positioning this as a safeguard against creative limitations.

The question of how AI assistance affects human creativity in design workflows is central to the platform’s evolution. Kawalsky’s perspective is that the relationship should be symbiotic. “You might use it for ideas, then do some crafting on your own, and then use it again for review,” he said, describing a workflow where users can “lean into the AI when you want it and lean out when you want to do it on your own”.

With millions of users potentially using similar AI capabilities, the risk of creative homogenisation is a legitimate concern in AI-assisted design. When asked about this, Kawalsky shared that Canva’s approach relies on two mechanisms: fully editable outputs that allow human intervention and what he describes as “the largest and most advanced library of design data in the world”.

The system is designed to understand individual user contexts, brands, and design histories. “It’s understanding your needs, understanding your context, and then producing a design that’s unique to you,” Kawalsky explained, suggesting that personalisation is key to avoiding generic outputs.

Living memory and data handling

At the heart of Canva AI 2.0 is a feature called ‘living memory’, which scans users’ past designs to build what Kawalsky calls “a holistic picture of you”. The system analyses not just what users work on but also their approach and tone. When asked about data handling and storage, Kawalsky emphasised user control. “Your living memory is just for you. It powers your designs, but it’s a secure document that is owned by you and stored against your account,” he said. Users can edit their memory profiles, allowing them to remove test projects or other content they don’t want influencing future AI outputs.

The more data the system has access to, the better it theoretically performs. “The more deeply Canva AI understands you and your context, the better results it can produce,” Kawalsky stated, though he emphasised that users maintain control over what information is included.

When asked about competition from other popular AI tools, Kawalsky positioned them as complementary rather than competitive. “They bring millions of people into Canva. Canva is actually one of the top referral sites and products from those platforms,” he said, describing the relationship as a “massive tailwind” that funnels users with design intent to Canva’s platform.

On the safety front, Kawalsky outlined multiple layers of protection. “There’s constant moderation, both on inputs and outputs,” he explained, noting that all features undergo “constant proactive safety assessments to evaluate, test, and mitigate risks”. Content shared publicly through the platform undergoes automated review against acceptable use policies. The company has also taken an ownership position, with Kawalsky stating that “what you produce with Canva AI is generally owned by the user, not by us”.

Despite the significant expansion in AI capabilities, Canva is maintaining its free tier. “Our free plan has always been really central to Canva, and that’s going to continue in the AI age,” Kawalsky said. The company has shifted from feature-specific quotas to a unified AI allowance that can be used across all tools, giving users “much more flexibility in terms of which AI tools they can use”.

To mark the launch, Canva is offering the first million eligible users maximum AI usage for five to seven days, a promotional period Kawalsky said the company is “quite excited for”.