Is the investment in AI justified by the increased cost of a Canva subscription?
Design software service Canva has announced a price hike for its memberships globally, with reports from some U.S. users indicating that the cost of a five-person team subscription has surged from $120 per year to $500 per year. To mitigate the impact, Canva is offering a 40% discount for the next year, reducing the price to $300 – still marking a $180 increase.
Despite the backlash from users, the company, valued at $26 billion with 185 million global monthly users, is justifying the price hike by highlighting its new AI features.
“Our suite of products has expanded significantly over the past few years with the introduction of new offerings like the Visual Suite and Magic Studio,” stated a Canva spokesperson.
The Visual Suite boasts AI-powered writing, slideshows generated from a prompt, and AI capabilities to transform documents into websites, while Magic Studio leverages AI to convert written ideas into social media posts, videos, and slideshows.
Despite the innovative AI features, subscribers have taken to social media to express discontent over the cost increase, particularly highlighting the potential negative impact on small businesses.
Canva recently extended a multi-year partnership to provide customers with access to Getty images and videos and acquired AI startup Leonardo.ai in July to enhance its AI offerings. Leonardo’s 120-person team has now joined Canva’s workforce of 4,000 employees.
Canva CEO Melanie Perkins emphasized in July the efficiency brought by AI features, reducing the time to transform ideas into tangible products.
Canva CEO Melanie Perkins. Credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Integrating AI into a business is not only costly but also carries a significant environmental impact.
The development of AI models currently exceeds $100 million, with projections indicating a further rise in costs in the future. Additionally, AI researchers estimate that it requires 30 times more energy for AI to generate text compared to extracting it directly from the source.
Related: New Google Report Reveals the Hidden Cost of AI
