With the new deep research connector, ChatGPT can automatically access a user’s Canva database and answer questions about it.
With the MCP integration, AI chatbots can complete design requests and tasks on the user’s behalf
Photo Credit: Canva
Canva introduced two new artificial intelligence (AI) features for its visual communications platform on Thursday. While these are backend features that will not be visible on the frontend to the user, they significantly improve its capabilities in terms of platform integration. The first new feature is Canva's deep research connector for ChatGPT. This allows OpenAI's chatbot to answer queries about a user's Canva projects. The second feature is an open Model Context Protocol server, which is designed to let AI assistants and chatbots connect with Canva to perform several actions.
In a press release, the visual communications platform detailed the two new features. Calling itself the first design platform to directly integrate into ChatGPT, Canva said the deep research connector allows the OpenAI chatbot to connect with Canva and answer user queries about their files and projects.
Canva says this feature will save users the hassle of switching between the apps and manually uploading their designs to ChatGPT, in case they want to take feedback from the AI. The feature will only work when the chatbot's Deep Research mode is active.
Interestingly, once connected, ChatGPT can also understand the context behind the user's queries. For instance, a user can say, “Summarise our Q1 campaign strategy,” and the chatbot will search the user's Canva data to find the right deck and provide a summary for the same. Since Deep Research is available to ChatGPT users across all tiers, the feature does not require users to purchase a subscription.
The visual communications platform has also added an open MCP server to enable third-party chatbots to connect with Canva's platform. MCP was created by Anthropic as a standardised way for AI systems to connect with external data hubs. With this, users can generate design projects and decks, resize files, import and export assets, and more while conversing with their favourite AI chatbot.
For instance, a user can tell Gemini to “Generate a pitch deck based on this chat,” and Google's chatbot will generate a new Canva presentation within the chat interface. While the server was introduced on Thursday, the company says MCP integrations with Claude, ChatGPT, Salesforce and more will be available soon. No date for the integration was provided.
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