85% believe senior stakeholder resistance to new technology is hindering creativity in the workplace: Canva

New Delhi: Canva released its second annual Visual Economy Report featuring insights from more than 3,700 global business leaders on the drivers and impact of visual communication.

The company commissioned business intelligence firm Morning Consult to understand how they're approaching the use of visual communications tools in the workplace and the role AI is playing in their ability to increase productivity, elevate creativity, and streamline workflows. 

The survey was conducted in 12 markets, including India, the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

The top findings from Indian respondents include:

Unlocking business benefits: Nearly three-quarters (73%) say visual communication tools have increased business performance. From accelerating content creation and team collaboration to stronger audience engagement, visual-first communication is supercharging how organizations save time and money. As a result, 70% of leaders are investing more in visual communication tools than the previous year.

AI fast tracks productivity: Tighter budgets and increased content demands have led 89% of leaders to explore AI-powered tools as options to accelerate their content production needs. The vast majority (92%) agree the quality of visual content has improved because of AI, yet concerns about plagiarism (80%), bias (84%), and job loss (81%) linger.

Design democratised: The ability to communicate visually is now table stakes in the workplace, regardless of role. The majority of leaders (97%) expect employees in non-design roles to possess some design acumen in order to be effective communicators in their organizations. Consequently, more than two-thirds (67%) are now providing training to those not in design roles to meet a certain threshold of design competency.

Accelerating scaling through collaboration: More than one-third (41%) of leaders believe the inability to collaborate across teams and complex workflows (38%) is a challenge when creating and scaling content. As a result, when investing in visual communication platforms, business leaders are emphasizing real-time collaboration (96%), more streamlined workflows (95%), and all-in-one functionality (95%).

Creativity needs the right tools to flourish: 85% believe senior stakeholder resistance to new technology is hindering creativity in the workplace. 82% attribute siloed teams and poor cross-functional collaboration as deterrents to imaginative thinking and fresh outputs.

Rebecca Janes, Creative Designer and Environmental Branding Strategist, FedEx Global Brand, said, “We use Canva for just about anything that is templatized, from presentations to digital signage, internal websites, invitations, playbooks – the possibilities are endless. The ability to easily collaborate and share designs across so many teams has been a huge timesaver. What would normally take days can take only minutes.”

"Communicating visually has always been humanity's most powerful medium, and it's even more important in the digital age – bridging workplaces and captivating audiences like never before. It's emerging as the currency of true connection,” said Cameron Adams, co-founder and chief product Officer, Canva. “Harnessing the power of visuals and enhancing them with AI capabilities isn’t just beneficial to team communication, it is now a crucial advantage for leaders in their quest to hire, market and sell while aiming to get better results on their financial investments.”