Canva's Co-Founder on AI 2.0, What AI Can't Replace in Design, and Who Actually Keeps Him Up at Night

Today we're going deep inside Canva AI 2.0 with co-founder and CPO Cameron Adams. He breaks down how Canva trained its design model not just on finished outputs but on the actual sequence of human edits — the hesitations, the pivots, the moments of clarity — so the AI understands what you mean, not just what you type. He makes a compelling case that when AI makes everyone good at design, the people who stand out are the ones with judgment, empathy, and instinct — the things AI can't replicate. He also positions Canva as the "last mile" of creative work, arguing that chatbots are great for starting ideas but you always hit a wall trying to finish them in a chat box. And when asked who keeps him up at night — Adobe, Figma, or OpenAI — his answer is none of them, and the reasoning is worth hearing.