Canva reduced its expected revenue growth rate by a third to 20% after higher-than-expected costs for generative AI features led it to slow the rollout of those tools, a setback at a time when AI is central to its push beyond design into workplace software. CEO and co-founder Melanie Perkins said demand for new AI features significantly exceeded expectations, validating user interest but exposing the need to lower the cost of each AI task before a broad launch. She said Canva has cut cost per task by nearly 90% since launching Canva AI 2.0 in April, an agentic upgrade to the platform, but users are creating three times as many designs as with the previous version, keeping pressure on economics. The development reflects a wider software-industry challenge as AI inference erodes the traditional low-marginal-cost model of SaaS, with PitchBook analysts pointing to Canva and Figma as major examples. Figma’s free-cash-flow margin fell to 14% in the second quarter from 27% in the first, while it forecast third-quarter revenue growth of 36%, down from 48% in the June quarter. The issue is especially important as Canva considers a potential IPO after an employee share sale valued the company at $42 billion, with market watchers previously suggesting it could go public in 2026 and analysts now saying the listing may slip to next year.