Canva’s Fight for Relevance in the Age of Google Nano Banana

Google’s new image generation and editing model, Nano banana, has taken over the internet by storm. Officially known as Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, this AI model has quickly gained millions of users, processing millions of image edits in just a few days. 

Creators across India are using Nano Banana to transform selfies, animals and famous personalities into miniature 3D figurines. Visuals are detailed, stylised and made to resemble collectables one could display on a shelf.

One of Nano Banana’s standout features is its ability to interpret natural language prompts. Users can simply type commands like “turn this photo into a 3D figurine” or “place me in a medieval landscape”, and the AI executes the edits with remarkable precision. 

But Google isn’t the only player in this space. Chinese company ShengShu Technology has also launched a new Reference-to-Image feature for its flagship generative AI platform Vidu, which allows users to create true-to-life images from up to seven reference photos. Similarly, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has unveiled Seedream 4.0, its newest AI image generation tool. The company claims that the tool outperforms Google DeepMind’s viral Nano Banana editor on several major benchmarks.

The success of Nano Banana and similar models signals the beginning of a new era in image editing, one that is pushing players like Canva and Adobe to change their strategy. In an exclusive interview with AIM, Danny Wu, head of AI products at Canva, said that he sees Canva as both a design and a visual communications platform.

Rethinking Design in the AI Age

New additions like Canva Sheets and Canva Docs expand the platform beyond traditional design. Citing the former, Wu explained that he doesn’t see it as a traditional spreadsheet, but rather as a record or database layer to help users track assets while working on marketing campaigns.

Meanwhile, tools like Magic Switch allow users to instantly convert designs across multiple formats, from TikTok videos to pitch decks.

Wu said that Canva follows a three-pronged AI strategy, which includes developing proprietary models for core design tasks, integrating best-in-class models from partners like OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, and supporting third-party apps through its ecosystem. Each model is chosen based on quality, latency, cost and suitability for specific tasks.

For instance, Canva collaborated with Google Cloud to integrate the generative video model Veo 3, which Wu described as a significant leap in quality for AI videos and audio. He added that use cases range from storyboarding and inspiration to creating b-roll for presentations. 

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis recently said the future of creative tools will increasingly focus on interacting with them conversationally, allowing users to iterate naturally and refine outputs.

Meanwhile, Josh Woodward, VP of Google Labs and Gemini, wrote on X that the Gemini app has added 13 million new users in the last four days, bringing the total to over 23 million. Moreover, the app has surpassed 500 million images, with 300 million new ones added during this period. 

What is Even Real Anymore?

Hayao Miyazaki, a legendary Japanese animator and the original creator of Studio Ghibli, has been a vocal critic of AI-generated art. In a widely circulated old video from 2016, Miyazaki saw a demo of an AI-generated animation project and described it as “an insult to life itself.” 

Wu acknowledged the ongoing debates about whether AI-generated content counts as art. “Personally, I think AI art is art,” he said. “One definition I love is that art is transforming your hallucinations into tangible form. That’s true whether you’re painting, taking a photo or using AI.”

To address concerns, Canva launched Canva Shield, which includes a $200 million creator fund and gives users control over how their data is used for training. “We can’t be hand-waving around the impacts of AI,” Wu stressed. “We have to think about the right ethical and safe way to approach this technology.”

India, a Key Market 

India is a market that embraces visuals with great enthusiasm. After ChatGPT introduced its image generation feature with the popular Ghibli-style filter, users worldwide created over 700 million images in just one week. India emerged as the fastest-growing market during this surge, showing an especially eager response to visual creativity.

The same is true for Canva. India has become the platform’s fourth-largest market, with more than 660 million designs created in the past year. Tools like background removal and Magic Resize features are especially popular among Indian users.

Wu said that Canva’s approach is to be truly local. Beyond app translation, this involves sourcing stock photography and templates from local creators and ensuring that the content is culturally relevant. “We really want to make Canva not just localised, but local for every single country,” he said.

The race is no longer about who builds the smartest AI, but who delivers the most useful one. Canva’s relevance will rest on embedding intelligence into workflows so naturally that it feels invisible.

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