India, April 16 -- Amidst a flurry of announcements, anyone looking closely at the finer details will notice big tech often leaves some things for discovery. Perhaps an intention, a direction, or how the company places itself in the broader ecosystem. In a briefing on the sidelines of this year's Canva Create keynote, Cliff Obrecht, who is co-founder and Chief Operations Officer, described artificial intelligence (AI) as something that isn't a defensive hedge but something that's akin to an all-in pivot.

"We have a saying now that Canva is more AI, less UI," he says. Historically, Canva has always held an advantage with casual as well as professional users, because the user interface (UI) was most intuitive. It wasn't an easy balance to ...