Canva chief executive Melanie Perkins told staff on Wednesday 4 November that a restructure would affect 1,271 workers, Australian Associated Press reported. The changes span job cuts, redefined roles and relocations for 22 per cent of the Sydney-based graphic design platform’s roughly 5,700 workers. Perkins told staff that growth had slowed for the first time in a decade, NewsWire reported.
Key points
- The 1,271 affected workers include people whose roles will change or who have been asked to relocate.
- Perkins cited slower growth and changes in what users expect from creative software.
- Revium managing director Adam Barty described AI as an existential threat to Canva’s business model.
- Staff who lose their jobs will receive at least six months’ salary and continued healthcare coverage.
Perkins reorganises Canva’s product teams
Perkins announced the changes in a note to staff that was also posted on Canva’s website. “This is without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history,” she wrote. She said she had considered other options but concluded that smaller changes would not be enough.
Canva plans to combine some functions and make Sydney the main base for its product teams. Perkins said overlapping responsibilities and too many handovers had made it harder for teams to take charge of larger product problems.
The affected total is wider than the number of jobs being cut. A Canva spokesperson said it includes staff asked to relocate; the number of job losses remains unclear, AAP reported. Workers facing a move are therefore counted alongside those leaving or taking redefined roles.
Revium’s AI warning meets Canva’s response
Adam Barty, managing director of advisory firm Revium, told AAP it was “pretty hard not to view AI as an existential threat to Canva’s core business model”. He argued that Canva’s user base could become more valuable to the company than its software as AI labs and startups expand their design capabilities.
Perkins gave staff a different account of the pressures behind the restructure. She said new technology was changing what people could make and what they expected from Canva’s products, while her note also described problems with how work moves between teams.
Canva has been building AI into its own products: AI Affairs reported the release of its first homegrown image model to all users. Blackbird, Canva’s largest backer, cut its valuation of the company by 17 per cent in August, NewsWire reported. A Blackbird spokesperson said the investor remained optimistic about Canva’s long-term prospects, citing its reach, AI capabilities and products.
Canva sets terms for departing staff
Staff who lose their jobs will receive at least six months’ salary, including entitlements, and a year of continued healthcare coverage. They can keep their MacBooks and apply for US$10,000 grants to start businesses or support their communities.
The changes follow other AI-related workforce decisions in Australian technology. Atlassian cut 1,600 staff in March, saying AI had changed the skills it needed.
Canva expects most staff to work on site roughly two to three days a week from January, NewsWire reported.
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