Canva and Adobe have spent the past three years building AI into their design products. Google just announced it's entering the same market.
At IO 2026, Google unveiled AI-powered design capabilities built specifically for people who aren't designers - teachers putting together classroom materials, small business owners creating social posts and marketing graphics. The positioning is a direct challenge to Canva, which has over 200 million users and has made AI image generation and layout suggestions core features, and to Adobe Express, which runs on Adobe Firefly (Adobe's in-house AI image generation model).
Google's advantage is distribution. Its products are already open in tabs for billions of people every day, which lowers the friction of adoption compared to asking someone to sign up for a new tool. Its disadvantage is habit - Canva users have workflows and template libraries built up over years. Switching has a real cost even when the alternative is technically capable.
The AI design space has gotten crowded fast. Every major platform - Canva, Adobe, Microsoft (via Designer), and now Google - is competing for the same segment of users who need professional-looking output without professional design skills. Google's entry confirms that segment is large enough to fight over at the platform level.