What Happened to Canva? Major Restructuring Affecting 22% of Employees and the "Growth Barrier in the AI Era"

School announcements, store posters, work presentations, and social media post images. Even without professional design skills, you can create visually appealing materials. Canva, which has expanded its user base worldwide due to its ease of use, has reached a significant turning point.

According to a report by Australian media WAtoday dated November 4, 2026, Canva is undertaking a large-scale organizational restructuring in response to slowing growth. Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins explained to employees that this is the most challenging phase in the 13 years since the company's founding.

The restructuring will affect 1,271 people, equivalent to 22% of all employees.

However, interpreting this number as "all 1,271 people will be laid off" is not accurate. According to the company's official explanation, in addition to workforce reductions leading to resignations, some employees will be subject to job changes or transfers to consolidated locations. The breakdown of the number of layoffs has not been disclosed.

Why did a company that has symbolized rapid growth find it necessary to significantly restructure its organization? And what does this change mean for users in Japan?

Even if sales are increasing, it doesn't necessarily mean an organization can continue to expand

What needs to be noted in this news is that "growth has slowed" is not the same as "sales have decreased."

According to WAtoday, Canva's sales growth rate was 45% in 2024 and 38% in 2025. The growth rate forecast for 2026 has been lowered to 20%.

Generally, a 20% growth rate is not small. However, for companies that have been hiring, developing, and building organizations with expectations of even faster growth, the discrepancy with expectations can become a management issue.

As the number of users increases, departments grow in line with that momentum, and work becomes more segmented. However, if the growth rate slows, the systems created during the expansion phase may manifest as slow decision-making and increased coordination.

Perkins proposed the idea of "re-founding" Canva. This involves not just reducing expenses but also returning to a state where small teams have decision-making power and responsibility, focusing on important issues for users.

The organization that led to past success may not necessarily be suitable for the next phase of growth. This recognition is evident in the current restructuring.

Consolidating departments, reducing management layers, and centralizing in Sydney

The core of the restructuring is the integration of organizations responsible for product development, growth strategies, and platform development. Product, Growth, and Platform, which were previously separate, will be consolidated into a single product organization.

According to the company's explanation, improving parts of the product required coordination across multiple departments, increasing the burden of handovers and collaboration. The specialization of fields also dispersed responsibility for handling a single issue from start to finish.

For example, even if a user feels "I want this operation to be simpler," if many departments are involved in the improvement, the path to implementation becomes longer. The organizational structure could prolong user inconvenience.

Canva will also streamline management layers and overlapping responsibilities. Additionally, more product teams will be primarily based in Sydney, and from January 2027, many hybrid workers will be required to come to the office two to three days a week.

While these changes are intended to strengthen collaboration for the company, transfers can affect employees' living arrangements and family life. Simply stating that "some people will not lose their jobs" does not fully convey the weight of this restructuring.

It cannot be definitively said that "AI took over jobs"

When large-scale layoffs and the word AI appear together, it may be tempting to conclude that "AI has replaced human jobs." However, from the announcements that can be confirmed this time, it is not possible to definitively establish that causal relationship.

Perkins stated that new technologies are changing how people create and their expectations of products. However, she did not directly link the reason for the layoffs to AI replacing employees.

It is important to distinguish between AI changing the business environment and AI replacing specific employees' jobs.

The former includes increased competition, changes in user expectations, investment in new features, and rising operational costs. While these changes may affect a company's revenue plans and organizational review, they do not alone prove the latter.

To understand the current situation at Canva, it is more cautious to view it as a rebalancing of growth, costs, and organization in response to the demands of AI, rather than a simple explanation of "AI made humans unnecessary."

AI increases convenience, but also changes the "cost of free"

What stands out in the WAtoday report is the cost of running AI features.

In traditional design services, even if users select templates and place text or images, the additional costs associated with individual operations were relatively small. However, image creation and advanced processing with generative AI require computational resources.

According to the article, the cost of providing AI features to over 200 million free users is squeezing Canva's profits, delaying the rollout of large-scale AI-driven updates.

This is a difficulty that services with many free users are more likely to face.

They want many people to use new features. However, the more they are used, the higher the costs. If usage is limited to keep costs down, dissatisfaction may arise. If they push for monetization, the impression of the service, which was strong for its ease of use, may change.

The challenge of incorporating AI and continuing to provide it seamlessly are separate issues.

For Japanese users, it's not just the number of AI features that matter. It's whether they can continue to use the features they usually use at a reasonable price and with stable operability.

On social media, there were complaints about "the previous ease of use"

When reacting to social media, it's important to be mindful of the timeline. Among the posts confirmed this time, the ones introduced here are primarily discussions on Reddit before the restructuring announcement, not reactions to the announcement on November 4.

In the user community, a poster who had been a long-time fan of Canva expressed dissatisfaction with recent AI features, stating that they couldn't create as they wished.

Replies included resistance to materials that appeared AI-generated and dissatisfaction with the results of AI editing. These are individual user impressions and do not objectively verify the quality of the entire product. However, it can be read that some users are not welcoming the changes.

Interestingly, the discussion continued with "then what should we use?" after expressing dissatisfaction.

Some people mentioned switching to other design software, but explained that those alternatives are not directly replaceable with Canva in terms of price and ease of use for beginners.

This also shows Canva's strength. What many people need is not just tools equipped with the highest level of professional features but tools that can be learned quickly and used to create results immediately.

Meanwhile, in another community dealing with technical careers, there were posts expressing concern about potential layoffs even before the announcement, with replies checking the reliability of the information and the scale of past reductions. While these anonymous posts cannot be used to verify internal company matters, they do indicate that there was concern among employees.

It is not appropriate to interpret this as "all of social media is criticizing Canva." What can be confirmed are voices from limited communities.

The question is not the number of features, but whether the task can be completed

There is no direct evidence to link the dissatisfaction on social media and the current restructuring as cause and effect. However, placing them side by side reveals issues that need consideration.

Companies rush to respond to new technologies. Users want to complete the creations they need today.

For example, a store manager wants to create campaign images for this week. A school teacher wants to prepare materials for class. An event organizer wants to complete an announcement that correctly conveys the event date and participants.

In these situations, what is evaluated is not just the novelty of the technology installed. It's important that necessary materials can be found, text can be easily corrected, saving and exporting are stable, and tasks can be completed without confusion.

If AI shortens that time, its value is clear. Conversely, if it takes time to correct generated results or relearn how to operate, it will be seen as a burden by users.

This is not limited to Canva. Any service incorporating AI needs to face the actual working time of users.

Departing employees to receive more than six months' salary, and entrepreneurial support

In addition to the scale of workforce reductions, support for departing employees has also been announced.

This includes a minimum of six months' salary, 12 months of continued medical coverage in countries where the company provides it, and the retention of work MacBooks. According to the official explanation, the minimum six months' salary includes statutory payments.

Additionally, departing employees who wish to start their own business can apply for a $10,000 grant.

These measures can serve as support for transitioning to the next job or activity. However, they do not eliminate the impact of suddenly changing life or career prospects.

When discussing restructuring, we should not forget that behind efficiency and growth rates are people losing their jobs, those forced to change their place of residence, and those whose working styles will change in the remaining workplace.

What should Japanese users be looking at?

This announcement is about organizational restructuring and does not signal the end of Canva's services. At least from the announcements confirmed, there is no indication of price changes or the discontinuation of specific features for Japan.

Therefore, there is no need to hastily stop using the service based solely on the headlines.

What should be noted in the future is whether the simplification of the organization leads to actual ease of use. Will basic operations improve? Will AI features be useful in necessary situations? Will there be changes in support and troubleshooting? Will the relationship between pricing and features remain clear?

Canva has broadened the entry point for design creation. Its value cannot be measured solely by the number of users or features. It lies in the reassurance that even non-experts can shape what they want to convey.

Ultimately, it will be the people who use the tool every day who judge whether the "re-founding" was successful.

What is required of the next Canva is not only to show novelty but also to maintain trust in the familiar tool.

Sources and References

1. WAtoday: Scale of restructuring, growth rate forecasts, AI operational costs, support for departing employees, etc.
   https://www.watoday.com.au/technology/canva-unveils-mass-job-cuts-in-hardest-moment-of-its-history-20261104-p61b62.html

2. Canva Official Announcement "An important update on our team": Confirmation that the 1,271 people include those subject to job changes and transfers, department integration, office attendance policy, and support for departing employees.
   https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/canva-team-update/canva.com

3. The Register: Supplementary report confirming the lack of breakdown of the number of layoffs and that the official message does not explicitly state AI as the direct reason.
   https://www.theregister.com/saas/2026/11/04/aussie-adobe-assailant-canva-announces-layoffs-in-re-org-affecting-22-of-staff/5307422theregister.com

4. Reddit・r/canva "WTF HAPPENED TO CANVA": User discussions about dissatisfaction with AI features and materials, and the ease of use of alternative services, before the restructuring announcement. These are anonymous personal experiences and do not represent the evaluation of all users.
   https://www.reddit.com/r/canva/comments/1xb3un1/wtf_happened_to_canva/reddit.com

5. Reddit・r/cscareerquestionsOCE "November layoffs at Canva?": Discussions about employment concerns and the reliability of information before the announcement. Internal information and speculations in the posts are not adopted as confirmed facts.
   https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestionsOCE/comments/1xd8mbg/november_layoffs_at_canva/