Canva AI - 5 big features 🎨

Hi Non-Techies,

A trip to Belgium, followed by the Easter weekend, means I’m probably about 85% chocolate by now. I’ve eaten it, I’ve drunk it, I’ve made it, and now I’m writing about it. 

Whilst this isn’t Chocolate For Non-Techies, I’m hoping that today’s foil-wrapped insights into Canva’s new AI functionality will still feel like a bit of a treat.

Any long-time readers of this newsletter will know that I’m a big fan of Canva. A Fanva, if you will. It’s woman-run and it makes life easier for Non-Techies (I’m a proud Non-Techie, after all).

But its AI features have been a bit…uninspiring. Until now.

Using my ultra-sophisticated “Heather Excitement Scale” (patent pending), I’ll run through their new AI features faster than you can say ‘How is it already Tuesday?!’.

Today's menu:

• Become an AI Trainer 🤩

• 1) Canva Sheets: AI-Powered Spreadsheets

• 2) Canva AI: Conversational Creative Assistant

• 3) Canva Code: No-Code Interactive Content Builder

• 4) Visual Suite 2.0: Multi-Format, AI-Driven Desig …

• 5) AI Video Features: Voiceover and Karaoke Captio …

• How can you access these features?

• Got data? Not using it? You’re not alone.

Become an AI Trainer 🤩

The AI training industry is absolutely BOOMING, with huge demand but a woefully short supply of genuinely good AI trainers. As such, pricing is high, sales cycles are short and it’s a really exciting place to be.

I’ve been squirrelling away, creating a brand new, 12-week Become an AI Trainer course. It’s CPD-certified and will be launching on Monday, 12th May.

Click the button below to join the waiting list. You’ll get early entry, and first access to our ridiculously good launch offer, which is limited to the first 100 people through the door:

1) Canva Sheets: AI-Powered Spreadsheets

What is it?

Imagine a much prettier version of Excel that integrates with all of Canva’s design tools, then sprinkle some AI over it. Here’s what it can do:

• Magic Charts: Instantly turn boring-looking data into fun-looking branded visualisations with one click.

• Magic Formulas: Can’t remember which formula is which? Canva’s AI helps to make using formulas as smooth as butter (or your preferred spreadable alternative).

• Magic Insights: Ask questions about your data and get instant, AI-generated insights and summaries. E.g.

Q: What does this data tell me about my newsletter subscribers?
A: They’re all a bunch of legends.

(not a real example, but it should be).

Heather’s Excitement Scale: 8.5/10

I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited about something spreadsheet-based, which is saying something, because I’m a sucker for a good spreadsheet.

I particularly like the Magic Insights feature, which, based on my initial tests, actually gives useful insights. If you’re not already creating your reports on Canva, maybe it’s time to give it a go.

2) Canva AI: Conversational Creative Assistant

What is it?

Type or speak what you want, and Canva AI will make it.

Three things it’ll help you with:

• Prompt-Based Creation: Ask it to design something, and you shall receive. Imagine if Canva and ChatGPT had a baby. Beautiful baby Chanva.

• Rapid Iteration: Quickly tweak layouts, resize assets, or generate new slides and copy as you work. All guided by AI (as in, Artificial Intelligence, not a bloke called Alan).

• Personalisation at Scale: Quickly create loads of on-brand assets tailored for different audiences, platforms, or campaigns.

Heather’s Excitement Scale: 8/10

This is probably the nearest thing you can get to “thinking a design into existence”, and it’s going to make Canva even more powerful for Non-Techies.

Still, whilst it can save you some time, it’s nowhere near replacing the magic of communicating with a human graphic designer and watching them bring your idea to life.

3) Canva Code: No-Code Interactive Content Builder

What is it?

Canva Code lets you add calculators, forms, quizzes, and widgets* to your designs - just by describing what you want.

*(don’t ask me what a widget is. Nobody knows. It’s just a digital thingy-majig. Let’s leave it at that.)

Canva Code’s updates will let you:

• Prompt-to-App: Describe the interactive element you need (like “Add a Heather’s Excitement Scale to this landing page”), and Canva Code builds it for you.

• Seamlessly Integrate: Drop these interactive apps directly into presentations, web pages, or learning resources and blow people’s minds.

Heather’s Excitement Scale: 7.5/10

This one gets a 9/10 for the idea, but a 6/10 for the execution. For me, the main problem is that you can’t always upload docs.

I tried to create an AI training costs calculator for my clients, but without being able to upload our pricing sheet, it all felt a bit faffy (I’m officially making ‘faffy’ a word). It’s very possible I’m missing something, but for now, I think this needs some work before it becomes useful to me.

4) Visual Suite 2.0: Multi-Format, AI-Driven Design

What is it?

Create, edit, and manage multi-format designs (like social posts, presentations, and documents) in a single, unified file. AI keeps everything on-brand and ready for any channel.

Get ready for:

• Unified Design Management: Edit and export assets for every platform from one central file - no more juggling dozens of versions like a lunatic clown.

• AI-Powered Resizing and Formatting: Instantly adapt designs for different platforms or formats with a single click.

Heather’s Excitement Scale: 7/10

I’ll level with you: I haven’t had a chance to put this through its paces yet. If it works as Canva claims it will, it’ll solve a long-standing pain point for me.

But I remain somewhat cynical. Automated resizing can do strange things to a design, and if I have to re-design the resize, it’ll be re-ally annoying.

5) AI Video Features: Voiceover and Karaoke Captions

What is it?

Add natural-sounding voiceovers and dynamic, karaoke-style captions to your videos, making your content more engaging and accessible.

Here’s the juicy stuff:

• AI Voiceover: Instantly generate voiceovers in multiple styles and languages or record your own directly in Canva - no extra software needed.

• Karaoke Captions: Automatically sync and animate captions so viewers can follow (or sing) along easily, boosting engagement and accessibility.

Heather’s Excitement Scale: 7.5/10

It seems Canva is stepping into Veed's video editing territory. Anyone got popcorn?

As accessibility rightly becomes an increasingly important priority for businesses, these new AI video features are a welcome addition to Canva’s toolbox. The ability to create multilingual voiceovers will also be huge for brands that want to create localised content.

Très bien, Canva (and they said doing French at school was a waste of time).

How can you access these features?

The official party line from Canva is that these features are ‘Coming soon’.

With the help of one of my AI Academy members, I was lucky enough to get early access, which involved clicking each of the pictures in the banner ad on the homepage. Just when I thought I’d had enough Easter Eggs for one year.

Unfortunately, early access is now closed, which means you’ll have to wait if you missed the initial cohort. Don’t worry, though: We’re probably talking days, not months.

Got data? Not using it? You’re not alone.

[Sponsored] I had a bit of a “what am I doing?!” moment recently.

My business is sitting on a treasure trove of customer insights that I'm completely ignoring.

Think about it - all those:

• Call recordings (with AI note takers)

• Client onboarding answers

• Support conversations

• Reviews and testimonials

They contain exactly what people love about our services, what confuses them, and what they wish we offered.

That's the "unstructured data" marketing experts keep banging on about. And apparently, it represents 80% of potential business insights most companies never tap into.

For small businesses like mine, this could be the difference between surviving and thriving. (Or growing like heck, which is my current plan.)

That's why I've signed up for HubSpot's masterclass next Thursday (April 24th, 3pm BST) on turning this untapped data into real revenue.

It's a live-only event with their Head of AI and the founder of Frame AI - no recordings will be available afterwards.

Grab your spot here if you're curious:

Right, it's back to work after the Easter break here in the UK, so I'd better roll myself to the office, Augustus Gloop style, and get my head back in the game.

See you next week,

Heather