About this session

Every SaaS company is racing to build AI features. Canva asked a different question: what happens when the AI agent - not the human - is choosing which tools to use? With 18 billion AI interactions, 230 million monthly users, and integrations now live inside ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor, Canva has been running the experiment in real time. Anwar Haneef, who leads Canva's entire ecosystem strategy, will break down how they made the deliberate decision to build an MCP server instead of a proprietary AI agent - and why that bet is paying off. In this session, you'll learn: •Why Canva chose Model Context Protocol (MCP) over building custom AI agents - and the privacy, distribution, and developer experience advantages that came with it •The two-part strategy every platform needs: making your product pluggable for LLMs while also building a strong native AI experience •How Canva became the first design platform embedded directly into ChatGPT - and what that integration actually looks like in practice •What "being wherever there is an intention for design" means when AI agents are doing the intending •Early results from letting AI assistants access full Canva workspaces, brand kits, and design history through conversational context