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Canva is giving 5,000 employees a week off from their day job to learn new AI skills, in what Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer David Adams has called a “bold experiment in team development.”
The inaugural ‘AI Discovery Week’ will run from July 7 to July 11, confirmed in a LinkedIn post by Adams earlier this week.
Throughout the five days, Canva staff (aka Canvanauts) across the globe are taking part in a mix of guided sessions, open discussions, and unstructured experimentation sessions.
Adams described the approach as an “intentional move to build an AI-savvy workforce from the ground up,” building confidence and excitement among employees.
What is Canva’s AI Discovery Week?
Canva’s AI Discovery Week has a core goal to help its workforce “amplify their skills and ideas with the best tools available,” Adams wrote. “We aim to help our teams advance their AI capabilities.”
Employees will learn how to balance the use of AI tools with their own human capabilities, following the company’s philosophy that AI is an “enabler of human creativity and intelligence.”
“Without people and their vision, AI outputs are meaningless,” the Co-Founder explained. “Human intention, taste, and judgement remain vital, and it’s never been more important to have the right team in place, and empower them to do their best work.”
A graphic shared in Adams’ post said Canva employees will be able to ‘choose their own journey,’ mixing leadership-led panel discussions, tool-specific workshops provided by the likes of Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini, and separate streams of content for tech-focused and non-tech-focused staff.
Other sessions will also focus on the “understandable fears about how AI might impact one’s career,” Adams added. “We’re addressing them head on with sessions like “Chart Your Path: Growing Your Skills and Career in an AI World” and other discussions dedicated to questions around sustainability and AI ethics.”
There will be over 20 sessions and workshops available across the week.
To make the event as practical as possible, each Canva employee has been encouraged to come to the week armed with an AI-related idea or goal.
Learnings will then be tested during a two-day, company-wide hackathon – a “dedicated time to actually build out solutions for AI-improved workflows.”
Time, tools & learning – how Canva will achieve ‘aha’ AI moments
During the AI Discovery Week, Canvanauts will also have the opportunity for hands-on experimentation.
“We want every Canvanaut… to figure out what works for them with AI, and unlock that “aha” moment of discovering truly impactful solutions,” Adams wrote.
Canva believes that giving staff a week to become more curious about using the technology will accelerate AI adoption company-wide, and continue building a team culture rooted in “adaptable, nimble ways of working.”
The Chief Product Officer explained that encouraging AI adoption requires the right balance of dedicated time to experiment, access to tools, and opportunities to learn. “So we’re providing all three,” he continued.
In a 2025 Miro Study, over half of 8,000 global workers (54%) said they do not have the time or resources needed to learn how to maximize AI’s potential for their role.
“Team members told us they needed more time to explore and experiment with AI, rather than trying to squeeze learning into an already busy schedule,” Adams reflected. “This week, every Canvanaut has the freedom to set aside current projects and choose their own AI adventure.”
Canva staff have access to a range of specialized tools and are encouraged to explore new technology and models that could be valuable to their work. During the AI Discovery Week, they will have a chance to learn more about the existing suite of tools, as well as researching and recommending new tools.
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Expert-led sessions from tool providers will be augmented with opportunities for self-directed learning and team collaboration throughout the week. “Self-directed learning is key, because across every team, org and specialty, the potential use cases and toolsets differ vastly,” Adams wrote. “That’s why we’re hosting an array of role-specific sessions for everyone from Finance to Engineering.”
Why has Canva given employees a week off to learn AI?
As all employers grapple with the prospect of building AI capabilities in their workforce, Canva is perhaps drawing inspiration from Slack’s famous 'Ranger Week’ shutdown in 2023, in which the workplace messaging platform gave 3,000 employees five days to catch up on overdue online learning modules.
In Adams’ LinkedIn post, the Chief Product Officer said the graphic design platform believes the full week of learning will empower staff with the “time, tools, and knowledge to truly integrate AI into their daily workflows.”
"It’s a way to leverage AI to augment our skills and work smarter towards our goals," he noted.
The executive suggested that leadership teams need to give their employees “clear vision and instruction” to avoid getting left behind in the AI age.
Canva joins other employers, including Thomson Reuters, PwC, and AstraZeneca, to invest heavily in structured AI learning opportunities.
2025 has seen a surge in executives and business leaders calling on employees to treat AI tools as digital colleagues, as the concept of agentic AI grows in popularity.
Plenty of employees and experts have raised fears about how quickly businesses are adopting AI, and the potential dangers involved, ranging from compliance risks to the impact on human capabilities and jobs.
Canva’s Chief Product Officer addressed those concerns, promising a “human-first approach” to AI.
“We’ve seen that “AI first” might feel like “humans last”,” he acknowledged. “We believe there’s a better way, that keeps the spark of human creativity at the core."
