Canva's founder Melanie Perkins is steering the company towards becoming an 'AI platform with design tools', marking a significant shift from its previous incarnation as just a design tool. This pivot seeks to integrate advanced AI capabilities into Canva's offerings, allowing users to create designs with minimal input.

The move comes at a time when many companies are exploring how AI can streamline their operations. Perkins is confident that this new direction will help Canva capture more enterprise business, but the impact on traditional design jobs remains to be seen.

Perkins explains that the new approach aims to make design accessible to everyone by leveraging AI's ability to process vast amounts of data and automate repetitive tasks. The key, she says, is ensuring the output from these AI systems can still be edited by users, providing a balance between automation and human creativity.

The shift also highlights Canva's ambitions in the enterprise market, where tools that promise efficiency are highly valued. But as Canva embarks on this transformation, it faces competition not only from other design software giants but also from emerging AI-driven platforms.