On Thursday, Canva unveiled two innovative artificial intelligence (AI) features aimed at enhancing its visual communications platform. Although these features operate behind the scenes and will not be directly visible to users, they are set to significantly enhance platform integration capabilities.
Canva Introduces New AI Integration Features
In an official statement, Canva highlighted its position as the first design platform to implement direct integration with ChatGPT. The first feature, termed the deep research connector, allows OpenAI’s chatbot to access user queries related to their Canva projects and files.
Canva explained that this integration will eliminate the need for users to switch between applications and manually upload designs to ChatGPT when seeking feedback. For this feature to function, users must activate the chatbot’s Deep Research mode.
Once connected, ChatGPT can comprehend the context of user inquiries. For example, a user can request, “Summarise our Q1 campaign strategy,” prompting the chatbot to search through the user’s Canva data to retrieve the relevant presentation and offer a summary. This feature is available to all ChatGPT users without requiring a subscription.
Additionally, Canva has introduced an open Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, allowing third-party chatbots to link with its platform. Developed by Anthropic, this protocol standardizes the interaction between AI systems and external data sources. Through this server, users can create design projects, resize files, import and export assets, and more—all while interacting with their preferred AI chatbot.
For instance, a user can instruct Google’s Gemini to “Generate a pitch deck based on this chat,” enabling the chatbot to create a new presentation in Canva directly within the chat interface. While the MCP server was launched on Thursday, Canva indicated that further integrations with platforms such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Salesforce are forthcoming, although a timeline for these integrations has not yet been disclosed.
