Canva study shows Aussies love AI but are we moving too fast?

Australian marketers are embracing artificial intelligence – more than their global peers – but their enthusiasm for the much hyped technology has prompted concerns that they may be moving too fast.

Canva co-founders Cameron Adams, Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins have overseen a complete redesign of the company’s platform as it pursues the lucrative business market.

Australian marketers are embracing artificial intelligence more than their global peers, but their enthusiasm hasn’t been matched by governance as the nation lags the world in setting rules for the use of the much-hyped ­technology. So says a new Canva study based on a global survey of about 2400 marketing and creative leaders, including 500 from Australia.

The $52bn visual communications company, founded by Cameron Adams, Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins, is plotting an assault against Adobe, looking to undercut the US tech behemoth as it intensifies efforts to seize a greater share of the enterprise market ahead of a potential public listing.

Canva’s report found that 81 per cent of Australian marketers believe AI is critical to their long-term strategy versus the global average of 78 per cent. Trust in AI is also higher among Australians, surging from 81 to 94 per cent since 2023. This outpaced a global average of 89 per cent.

Canva global head of business marketing Emma Robinson.

Canva global head of business marketing Emma Robinson says generative – or conversational – AI, which is the ability to perform a variety of tasks via basic verbal prompts, has experienced a “massive momentum shift”.

“It’s now kind of table stakes for a lot of organisations, and reshaping marketing in particular,” Robinson says.

“Australia is leading the tide globally, which is pretty impressive. Trust in AI in particular has skyrocketed in Australia, which is fuelling this experimentation like never before.”

Canva acquired Leonardo.Ai – which developed Australia’s homegrown AI model – last year for an undisclosed sum.

Robinson says enthusiasm for AI among Australian marketers hasn’t been matched by governance. In the Canva report, Australians rank the lowest for implementing governance policies (82 per cent versus 86 per cent for the global average).

This raises the question of how organisations can strike the right balance between innovation and responsible AI use, given that 95 per cent of Australian marketers expect AI to become a core competency in two to four years.

“Each company, depending on the industry and maturity, is obviously different. But you’re starting to see governance and AI policies in certain places, organisations, and trust in particular,” Robinson says.

“I guess when it comes to creative making sure that companies are representing their brand online in the right way, those things are still going to always be managed by a human in the loop.

“So I think there’s those sort of policies, and then obviously, schooling is a big part of it.”

Robinson says companies need to balance the ability to experiment with technology with setting rules to not hinder adoption.

“This report shows that 93 per cent of people are open to letting their teams experiment with AI, but it’s not really about dealing with it, working alongside it, though 95 per cent of folks believe that AI literacy is the master skill for the next two to four years.”

Despite the shift and companies trialling the technology, many are struggling to adopt AI at scale. In a separate study, tech advisory firm ADAPT last year found 77 per cent of Australian companies were “ineffective” at generating value, and despite the technology accounting for the “lion’s share” of innovation budgets, it was failing to deliver on its promises.

Robinson says while widespread adoption of AI hasn’t been as smooth as expected, the tide is turning.

“Trying to adopt new tech like that … it’s a people change management (process) – the re-skilling, the relearning that a lot of marketers are having to go through. That’s important.

“Even after adoption, 60 per cent struggle to integrate AI consistently into workflows. They’re trying to figure out how to maximise the application and value of AI, so there is still some way to go.”

Canva redesigned its entire platform to attract more paying subscribers from the world’s biggest companies. It launched a suite of new products in Adobe’s backyard at its annual Create showcase in Los Angeles – the first time it has moved the event from ­Australia.

The new offerings included Canva Courses, to allow companies to make their own training modules; Canva Enterprise, a product that builds on its Pro and Teams versions; Canva Work Kits, a set of tools and templates for different teams within an organisation; and significant upgrades to its Visual Suite and Magic Studio.

The move comes ahead of a potenital listing, which co-founder and chief product officer Cameron Adams says would be a “natural evolution” for the company.

Originally published as Canva study shows Aussies love AI but are we moving too fast?