Canva CCO outlines four 2025 business trends

Four business trends shaped corporate performance in 2025, as companies that outpaced rivals moved beyond experimentation and focused on execution at scale, according to insights shared by Canva and its partners.

In a statement, the company said the strongest performers distinguished themselves by maturing their use of artificial intelligence, building scalable brand systems, prioritising visual communication and producing content quickly and in high volumes. Together, those shifts marked a move away from fragmented, manual workflows towards integrated operating models, a transition echoed across agencies and in hubs such as Digital Marketing Kuala Lumpur, where brands are increasingly under pressure to balance speed with consistency.

One of the clearest changes was in how organisations manage their brands. Static brand guidelines are giving way to dynamic systems that are accessible across teams. Canva said its Brand System, which combines templates, controls and shared assets, has enabled companies to stay on-brand while dramatically increasing output.

That approach was highlighted by DocuSign, where a 17-person creative team rolled out a refreshed brand identity across thousands of assets in just four months using Canva. The shift allowed employees outside the core creative function to produce branded materials independently, reducing bottlenecks and freeing designers to focus on higher-value work.

Artificial intelligence also entered a new phase during the year. Rather than testing tools at the edges of the organisation, leading firms began embedding AI directly into day-to-day operations. Canva said it paused normal business activity to give all 5,000-plus employees, known internally as Canvanauts, a full week dedicated to understanding and applying AI across their roles. The move reflected a broader recognition that AI adoption now requires organisation-wide fluency, not isolated pilots.

Visual communication emerged as another defining factor. Canva cited findings from its State of Visual Communication Report, which showed that 93% of business leaders believe visual content accelerates decision-making. Despite that consensus, the company said most organisations still rely on nearly nine separate tools to create visual content, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistent outputs.

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The emphasis heading into 2026 is expected to shift further towards execution. Canva said organisations are increasingly prioritising flexibility, scale and shared ownership of creative tools, with the aim of unlocking creativity at speed while maintaining coherence across channels.

Taken together, the trends suggest that competitive advantage is no longer about adopting the latest tools first, but about integrating them effectively. As brands, AI and content systems converge, the companies best positioned for growth are those that treat creativity and execution as core operational capabilities rather than support functions.

The Recap

• Four trends defined 2025: AI, brand, visual, content speed.
• Canva gave all 5,000+ Canvanauts a full week.
• Docusign rebrand rolled out by 17-person team in four months.