Canva AI Vision

by Dee Miller

SEMINAL joined Canva at Magazine London for the UK debut of AI Vision, bringing together founders, creatives, marketers and some of the companies building the next generation of AI. The big takeaway was simple: businesses no longer need convincing that AI matters. The harder question is what they actually do with it.

After editions in Sydney and New York, AI Vision landed in London on 15 September, with Canva bringing its growing global event series to a packed Magazine London. Canva had positioned the gathering around the ideas, opportunities and challenges shaping AI, with a programme spanning keynotes, panels, live demonstrations and conversations around creativity, business and the future of work.

The room reflected just how broad the AI conversation has become. Speakers included Canva co-founder and CPO Cameron Adams, Duncan Clark, Canva's MD EMEA and CEO of Pro Design, B2B CMO Meghan Gendelman, AWS's Sasha Rubel, Sebastian Schröder of Black Forest Labs, Superside's Jen Rapp, Uncensored CMO founder Jon Evans and Made By James founder James Martin, alongside voices from technology, marketing and the creative industries. Canva described the London edition as over 1,000 gathered to explore AI, design and creativity in the real world.

One of the most striking moments of the afternoon came from a set of numbers displayed across the main stage.

Sasha Rubel's keynote slide outlined: Just 31% of European businesses have a formal and comprehensive AI strategy. Only 24% have a responsible AI strategy, while just 10% have a data governance strategy.

Or, as one line captured on stage summed up the mood, people are “excited, nervous, hopeful, skeptical, often all at once.”

That probably describes the AI conversation better than most industry reports.

Canva AI 2.0

Earlier this year, Canva introduced Canva AI 2.0, which it described as the biggest product launch in its history, bringing conversational creation, agentic editing, web research, brand intelligence and other AI-powered workflows deeper into the platform.

That gives AI Vision a slightly different feeling from the standard corporate tech conference.

London Gets Another Big AI Moment

There was also something notable about Canva choosing London for the next stop.

The capital has spent the past year attracting a growing run of international AI companies, founders and platforms looking to build their European presence. AI Vision felt like another marker of that momentum, but with a broader mix of creatives, marketers and business leaders alongside the usual technical crowd.

And perhaps that was the strongest part of the event.

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