Canva has cut its expected revenue growth rate by one-third to 20% after the unexpectedly high cost of delivering AI features led the company to slow their rollout (12/08).

The design-software company said demand for its new AI features was higher than expected, but the cost of completing AI tasks has become a challenge.

Canva CEO and co-founder Melanie Perkins said the strong demand confirmed users wanted the new features, but the company needed to reduce the cost of each AI task before a wider rollout.

“This validated the demand, but also showed us we needed to reduce the cost of completing an AI task to support a broad rollout,” Perkins said in an email to Fortune. “Rather than broadly rolling out a product before the underlying economics were ready, we decided to slow the rollout while we rebuilt the architecture, reduced unit costs and strengthened the business model.”

The cost issue comes as AI becomes an important part of Canva’s plan to expand from design software into a broader workplace-software platform.

AI Costs Put Pressure on the SaaS Business Model

The situation at Canva reflects a wider challenge across the software industry.

Companies face pressure to adopt AI, but the cost of using the technology can affect the economics of software businesses.

Derek Hernandez, PitchBook’s senior research analyst covering the intersection of SaaS and AI, said AI is changing the traditional cost structure of software.

“AI is making SaaS no longer a zero marginal cost solution, which has really been what I would call a lot of software’s secret sauce up until now,” Hernandez told Fortune.

“People want a much more capable product and solution, which through today’s technology means cost of usage is becoming a really global challenge for all of these companies.”

Canva has been expanding its AI capabilities as it seeks to move beyond design and into enterprise workflows. The company has also added tools including Canva Code.

Canva Reduces AI Task Costs by Nearly 90%

Canva said it has reduced the cost per task by nearly 90% since launching Canva AI 2.0 in April.

Canva AI 2.0 is an agentic upgrade to the Canva platform. However, users are creating three times as many designs with the new version compared with the previous Canva AI, keeping the company focused on improving the economics of its AI services.

Perkins said Canva decided to slow the rollout while it rebuilt its architecture, reduced unit costs and strengthened its business model.

Figma Also Reports Pressure From AI Costs

Figma, which Fortune described as Canva’s public-market parallel, has also reported financial pressure linked to its AI strategy.

Figma’s free-cash-flow margin fell to 14% in the second quarter from 27% in the first quarter.

The company also forecast third-quarter revenue growth of 36%, compared with 48% in the June quarter.

Hernandez said Canva and Figma are the “biggest signals” that AI is changing the traditional SaaS model. Rising inference expenses, which are the recurring costs of processing AI requests, are appearing as slower growth at Canva and margin compression at Figma.

Hernandez explained the difference using a car analogy. He compared the costs of building a Ford F-150 with AI training, while fuel, mechanic costs and other expenses involved in using the vehicle were compared with inference costs.

“Canva and Figma both hit the same wall about five days apart, but they cited it in different places,” Hernandez said.

AI Costs Matter as Canva Considers an IPO

The AI cost issue comes as Canva considers a potential initial public offering.

Fortune reported last year that an employee share sale valued Canva at $42 billion, while experts said the company could go public in 2026. Hernandez now said Canva might be targeting a public listing next year.

By slowing its AI rollout, Canva is also considering the economics of the business as it prepares for potential public investors.

“I’m sure they’re trying to protect their profitability, especially if they want to go to public investors,” Hernandez said.

PHOTO: UNSPLASH

This article was created with AI assistance.

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