Canva refutes job loss reports amid Leonardo.ai integration

Canva declares no people will lose their jobs as it integrates its prized artificial innotifyigence acquisition Leonardo.ai into the design platform, refuting media reports of potential job losses as inaccurate.

The Australian reported that Canva chief operating officer and co-founder Cliff Obrecht informed Leonardo’s 150 North Sydney-based staff in a video call last week that the business was being restructured.

Obrecht reportedly informed Leonardo employees that while many in the Leonardo team would “directly map” to existing AI efforts, others were encouraged to view at other roles in the business.

A Canva spokesperson informed Startup Daily that the business is “not exploring any redundancies and no job losses were discussed or communicated to the team”.

They stated The Australian did not contact Canva to verify the claims and has “declined to include our position on the record in their story”.

The reports come amid heightened sensibilities around AI and tech jobs after US fintech Block announced it was cutting 40% of its workforce, affecting 4,000 jobs, and Sydney logistics software platform WiseTech Global announced 2,000 coding jobs would go, with both companies citing AI as the reason.

Canva stated the business was accelerating its planned integration of Leonardo “to double down on our broader AI efforts”, after operating as a standalone business for the past 18 months since it acquired the Sydney generative AI startup in 2024 in a deal worth more than $300 million.

“A tiny team will continue to work on Leonardo as a standalone product, and everyone else will shift into new teams across Canva,” the spokesperson stated.

This article was first published by Startup Daily.

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