Given that it has been a market specific turkey fight of sorts between Google Docs and Microsoft Word for as long as I can remember, Anva’s big move into the productivity software field has to be Canva Sheets, an AI powered spreadsheet tool trying to outrun Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Yet, of course, the availability of this new product has been integrated in the new Visual Suite 2.00 that incorporates data visualization and business productivity for this new platform of Canva.
On the contrary, Canva Sheets is based on artificial intelligence where as the conventional spreadsheet programs are based on them. Users can interact with the data more easily to create tables, find patterns, and present unprocessed data in a better aesthetic format without exhaustive formulas or code with the natural language prompts. The barrier to do advanced analytics is lowered because It makes data manipulation easier, especially for users who are not spreadsheet experts.
The launch comes in a promising attempt by Canva to provide an end to end solution for teams and companies who need to manage design and operations. Canva Sheets does require raw numerical input into dashboards, infographics or presentations, but with a few clicks this can be done. The best ideal for professionals who desire to bridge the hole between analytics and design.
The day the launch happened, Canva also announced a few new AI powered tools and among other things. In other words, they include a centralized AI chatbot helping to interact with Canva platform’s components allowing them to streamline workflows to a greater degree and also Canva Code which helps building fully functional web apps with just the text instruction. As such, the ecosystemarily integrated AI is put to work in a work that has no task inconsistency.
Much of this technological advancement has been brought about by Leonardo. This year, Canva bought the AI design startup Ai. One of the creative tools that we use at Canva to generate original visuals and mockups from text inputs is now built using Leonardo.Ai’s Phoenix model: Canva’s Dream Lab. Users can quickly move in and out of concept to execution on Dream Lab and Canva Sheets within a single platform.
According to them, canva’s AI innovations are also consistent with their goal of democratizing design and business tools for a worldwide user base. Today, Canva is a full blown tech giant worth around $26 Billion valuation and over 230 million users, from a graphic design startup. This approach is widely being used by the company in the marketing, education, and enterprise sector, which resulted in the revenues of the company exceeding $3 billion a year.
Co founder and CEO Melanie Perkins emphasized that the creation of spreadsheets by Canva is part of plans of the company to replace old, antiquated solutions with pretty, user friendly replacements. By adding the Sheets to the Canva platform, teams and individuals now have a single camp to pull data into, analyze, and creative work without having to switch between apps.
Hence, the company indicated that more updates are yet to come including deeper integrations with popular SaaS applications and improved AI models to assist understand and predict user requirements better. Currently, Canva Sheets is being rolled out globally.
Finally, Canva’s emergence as an AI equipped productivity suite with the release of its new AI powered Sheets represents a very important moment for the company. Fusing design, data and artificial intelligence, Canva is officially making its name as a big player against Google and Microsoft in the productivity software market.
