Decoder with Nilay Patel Canva's CEO on its big pivot to AI enterprise software
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Apr 20, 2026 
Melanie Perkins, Canva co-founder and CEO, joins for a sharp look at Canva’s shift from design app to AI workplace platform. She talks concept editing, prompt-powered creation, layered outputs, enterprise pricing, and why Canva wants to be the visual hub for work. There’s also plenty on rivals like Adobe, Anthropic, and Meta, plus how her team is reorganizing around AI.
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Canva Spreads AI Risk Across Partners And Credits
- Canva mixes outside AI providers with its own design-focused research instead of betting on a single model company.
- Melanie Perkins says free and paid tiers get different AI credit levels, and the first million users receive a $100 monthly AI pass.
Canva Wants To Be The Visual Layer Of Work
- Melanie Perkins argues Canva's enterprise wedge is that most work eventually becomes a visual artifact like a deck, doc, whiteboard, or report.
- She says connectors let Canva pull context from Slack, Gmail, and internal files, then turn it directly into editable output.
Melanie Used Canva AI To Discover Her Own Massage
- Melanie Perkins uses Canva AI on her own calendar and connected tools to generate planning docs for her week.
- One generated schedule surfaced a massage booking she thought was a bug, until she realized her partner had arranged it.