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Online graphic design platform Canva has announced a major corporate restructuring that will see more than 1,200 employees laid off, representing nearly 22 per cent of its total global workforce. The substantial workforce reduction comes after the Sydney-headquartered technology company recorded a deceleration in its revenue growth rate for the first time in a decade. Chief Executive Officer Melanie Perkins confirmed that approximately 1,271 workers across the organization will either lose their jobs, transition into different internal roles, or be required to relocate to designated regional operational hubs. While Perkins did not detail the exact division of staff between outright retrenchments and internal reassignments, she underscored that the business must simplify its structural overhead and return to operating through small, empowered teams.
Describing the operational pivot as the hardest moment in the company’s 13-year history, leadership cited tectonic shifts in user behavior driven by the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence technologies. The chief executive emphasized that modern technology platforms must urgently align with how consumers create digital assets and adapt to changing software expectations. Perkins stated that she reached the difficult conclusion that minor incremental changes would no longer suffice, prompting the decision to carry out a comprehensive overhaul of its organizational footprint, product priorities, and global staffing model.
Artificial Intelligence Adoption Drives Strategic Overhaul
The strategic realignments inside the Australian design company are directly linked to the rapid integration of artificial intelligence into day-to-day user workflows. Executive leadership highlighted that enterprise and individual software users are fundamentally modifying how they create visual content, demanding tools that are far more responsive, automated, and streamlined. To keep pace with these market shifts, corporate planners resolved to dismantle bureaucratic layers across engineering and operations, pivoting capital and engineering resources directly toward modern product pipelines that prioritize core generative tools.
The necessity to restructure follows a period of cooled market expansion after years of uninterrupted growth. Company executives observed that maintaining expansive, distributed operational layers hindered rapid software iteration, creating an urgent commercial rationale for leaner corporate architecture. By shifting organizational emphasis back toward autonomous teams, management intends to speed up design feature releases, streamline business decision-making processes, and protect company viability amid heightened market competition across the digital design software industry.
Transition to Mandatory In-Person Workplace Policies
Alongside staff cuts and role realignments, the technology firm is overhauling its workplace attendance mandates to emphasize physical collaboration across core offices. Under the updated policy framework, an increased portion of the company workforce will return to regular face-to-face engagements, with most hybrid personnel required to work from central office locations two to three days each week starting in January 2027. Corporate planners expect these co-located working environments to enhance cross-functional productivity, foster creative problem-solving, and tighten coordination across critical product development tracks.
The phased transition toward mandatory office attendance will primarily center around the company’s designated operational hubs. Management anticipates that clustering engineering, product, and marketing functions within shared geographic centers will minimize operational friction and strengthen organizational alignment during a challenging market transition. The return-to-office schedule gives affected cross-regional teams advance notice to prepare for mandatory weekly in-person obligations across the designated corporate sites.
Severance Terms and Collective Support Measures
To mitigate the economic impact on departing personnel, the platform has outlined an extensive transition package for qualifying workforce members. Retrenched staff will receive at least six months of salary payments along with continued access to healthcare coverage where applicable under regional regulatory frameworks. Management confirmed that departed employees will also receive dedicated career transition assistance and extended access to company support services during their job search.
In addition to standard redundancy settlements, the company has established a new initiative designated as the Canva Collective Fund. Under this support mechanism, eligible departing personnel can access a financial grant opportunity valued at 10,000 dollars to assist their professional transition. These comprehensive transitional measures are intended to provide meaningful stability to affected personnel as the Sydney-based firm conducts its broadest structural reduction to date.
