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Most business executives are at least AI-curious when it comes to producing visual content, but they still have some qualms about it.
Canva tapped survey firm Morning Consult to get a read on how more than 3,700 business leaders are thinking about the buzzy technology’s role in their workplace, among other issues. Four in five said they had used AI-powered tools to create visual content in the past year. But most also had a laundry list of concerns about its use, ranging from plagiarism and copyright infringement (70%) to bias and “confusing AI with human-created content” (68%), as well as job loss (64%).
The findings come as the design and visual editing software most familiar to office workers—Adobe’s creative suite, Canva itself, Figma—have been gradually adding new AI generation tools for at least the past year.
Some companies have leaned heavily into AI for visual content production. In a since-deleted post on X, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski bragged that the buy now, pay later giant would save $10 million this year by producing marketing images with generative AI, drawing blowback from users on the platform. Other business leaders have been perhaps more tactful—or quiet—about their use of the tech to stretch marketing budgets.
Marketing isn’t the only place where AI visuals have found a role in the office, though, according to the report. Two out of five sales leaders said they use AI in pitch decks and proposals, and 46% of respondents said HR professionals were using it to create internal communication materials. A whopping 96% of business leaders reported providing some form of AI tool training to employees.
As for its own offerings, Canva recently rolled out a new workplace package called Canva Enterprise that bundles all its tools into one subscription product for big companies, including its Magic Studio suite of AI copy and image generation features. The company claims in the report that users have now generated 1.4 billion images with its Magic Media tool.
“Harnessing the power of visuals and enhancing them with AI capabilities isn’t just beneficial to team communication, it is now a crucial advantage for leaders in their quest to hire, market, and sell while aiming to get better results on their financial investments,” Cameron Adams, Canva’s co-founder and chief product officer, said in a statement.