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Don’t let Canva’s rainbow gradients fool you. The Aussies are relentless, and their global conquest through easy-to-use design software continues as they set their sights on markets owned by Adobe and Microsoft. Even after a controversial price increase last year, growth is still explosive. Canva has added 50 million active users over the past 12 months, bringing its total to 230 million, with $3 billion in annual revenue. But despite this success, Canva decided it was time for a redesign. And it’s launching what the company considers its biggest overhaul since the app launched in 2012. It includes a Teams-crushing approach to file collaboration, a powerful AI-fueled spre…

Canva’s new AI tool, launching today, is going to save time, money, and headaches for so many people. Called Magic Layers, it turns any flat bitmap image into a fully editable Canva project, extracting text, objects, and components into individual layers. This tool marks a fundamental shift in how we handle digital assets. Until now, a rendered image was basically a locked vault of pixels. If you wanted to change a typo or swap a background, you had four options: 1) Hunt down the original project file, 2) painstakingly change it in Photoshop, 3) accept a generative AI patch job, or 4) close the laptop and escape to live a real life somewhere by a nice beach. Magic Layers…

Last year Canva reworked its user experience and tools in a full-frontal attack on the productivity and enterprise markets now dominated by Microsoft Office and Google Workspace. Now the Australian company is going for Adobe’s jugular. Affinity—the British company Canva bought in 2024—is out with a new app that aims to sink Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign with a simple proposal: If you are a professional designer, here’s an integrated photo editing, vector illustration, and page layout studio seamlessly integrated into a single application, with a feature set comparable to Adobe’s apps and a fully customizable UI. For free. You know, free free. “Free for…

Canva just pulled off a clean sweep in the AI design world that’s about to make AI-generated branding a lot more common. On May 19, the company announced that it’s partnering with Google Gemini to bring its Canva Design platform directly to Gemini users. Once Gemini users enable Canva in their app settings, they’ll be able to search their Canva content from within the chatbot, generate designs based on the context of their chat history, and easily take designs into Canva to edit them. The move means that Canva has successfully integrated its design tools with every major AI player in the game: Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, and, now, Gemini. Canva’s aggressive integr…

Schools and universities across the country are recovering from an outage that knocked down Canvas, an online platform that manages exams, course notes, lecture videos, and grades. The disruption tied to a cyberattack hit in the middle of finals period for many colleges, a high-stress time when students and instructors rely heavily on the platform. By late Thursday, Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, said the platform was available again to most users. The hacking group ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for the breach, said Luke Connolly, a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft. On Friday, Instructure and Canvas no longer appeared on a site w…

Capital One is buying Brex in a $5.15 billion stock-and-cash deal that underscores how traditional banks are turning to fintech startups to modernize the way businesses manage money. The acquisition, announced Thursday, would bring the San Francisco–based corporate card and expense management company into the fold of one of the largest U.S. financial institutions. The transaction is expected to close in mid-2026, pending regulatory approval and customary conditions. Brex CEO and cofounder Pedro Franceschi will continue to lead the company as part of Capital One. At first glance, the deal looks like a straightforward expansion into corporate cards. In reality, it i…

Miami Art Week usually exists behind invisible velvet ropes. It is a place where private dinners, celebrity walkthroughs, and invitation-only installations dominate the social landscape. But this past week, Capital One tried something unusual. It opened one of Art Week’s most insular cultural moments to people who are not part of the traditional art world by giving its cardholders access to the kind of programming that normally requires a personal invitation, using Art Week not simply as a cultural stage but as a strategic laboratory for understanding what premium consumers now expect from financial brands. The brand’s presence featured a collaboration with artist…

The pending merger between Capital One and Discover Financial services received approval from several regulators Friday, bringing the $35 billion tie-up closer to completion. The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency signed off on the deal, which was first announced in February 2024. The Federal Reserve Board said it entered into a consent order with Discover and assessed a fine of $100 million for overcharging certain interchange fees from 2007 through 2023. Discover has since terminated these practices and is repaying those fees to affected customers, according to the Federal Reserve. The board’s action is being taken in coordination …

Airport lounges used to be a perk. In 2026, they are a battleground. American Express is refreshing Centurion Lounges and adding faster Sidecar formats. Chase is experimenting with champagne parlors and hyperlocal chef partnerships in its Sapphire Lounges. Citi is back in the ultra-premium card game. And Capital One, the relative newcomer, is making a different bet. Instead of building another lounge at LaGuardia Airport, it built a restaurant. The new Capital One Landing at Terminal B is a 12,500-square-foot, chef-driven dining space created with José Andrés. It has a 2,250-square-foot working kitchen, the largest in the terminal, and a menu built around Span…

Capital One has launched an AI agent designed to help consumers with one of the most frustrating, time-consuming processes in life: buying a car. The banking giant’s Chat Concierge provides information, makes decisions, and takes action using multiple AI agents. Mimicking human reasoning, the product aims to assist consumers in all aspects of the research process involved in making a car purchase, from comparing vehicles to scheduling test drives. “Buying a car is a stressful experience,” says Prem Natarajan, EVP, chief scientist, and head of enterprise AI at Capital One. “The possibility that we can make this really important purchase for people a frictionless …

If you’ve had a Capital One savings account in recent years, the bank may soon send some money your way after a U.S. judge approved a $425 million settlement this week. Better yet? You don’t have to do anything to claim your stake in the class action lawsuit that was initially filed against the McLean, Virginia-based bank in 2024. To be eligible for settlement funds, you must have had a Capital One 360 Savings account at any time from mid-September 2019 through mid-June 2025. WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR A PAYMENT The case stems from allegations that Capital One “acted deceptively regarding the marketing and payment of interest on its 360 Savings account product,” acc…

In business, there’s one skill no leader would dare neglect: the financials. Financial literacy, like understanding a balance sheet, cash flow, or P&L, is one of the foundations for decision making. As climate change rewrites supply chains, consumer demand, and regulation, another fluency is becoming just as essential. Climate literacy will protect business growth and resilience, while leaders who ignore it are being left behind. But mastering it means more than knowing that emissions are a problem. It’s about being able to read, question, and apply environmental data the way a CFO interprets financials. Leaders must be able to ask, and know the answer to, questio…

“Start in a low-level position and work your way upward.” Does that even apply anymore? In fact, the “career ladder” doesn’t work for everyone anymore. Right now, as technology disrupts the work rules, there are no clear paths forward. The linear career path changed somewhere between the rise of the gig economy and the rise of artificial intelligence. Companies are restructuring. Some industries may collapse entirely in the next five years. I’ve gone from studying law to studying software entrepreneurship to being a self-improvement essayist. My career is still an “experiment in progress.” The world of work is changing. And I’m changing with it. The people who ma…

At work, we still talk about careers like they’re ladders. As if success must be a straight line upward: more responsibility, bigger title, better office. But that old image isn’t just outdated. It can be harmful. Ladders come with an unspoken message: if you’re not climbing, you must be falling. If you experience job loss, the ladder metaphor makes you feel like you slipped off and can’t recover. If you take a step sideways, it makes you look like you stalled and aren’t motivated. If you change careers completely, it can feel like you have to start from scratch. Most people don’t need any more pressure or extra worry about what others think, when they’re already …

After filing for bankruptcy several weeks ago, a large franchisee that operates dozens of Carl’s Jr. restaurants in California is planning to cut loose some of its underperforming locations, according to newly filed court documents. Sun Gir Incorporated, the lead debtor in a group of affiliated Chapter 11 cases that were filed in early April, has asked for court permission to reject the leases on at least three Carl’s Jr. locations in the Los Angeles area. As of this week, the restaurants appeared to still be open. But they have been operating at a substantial negative cashflow for the franchisee, as documented in three separate dockets filed in federal court fo…

Carnival Cruise Line has announced that it is launching a new dining experience on its ships for people who don’t like the long, leisurely evening dinners that cruises are known for. Here’s why Carnival is introducing the new option, and what it means for you if you’re traveling on a Carnival cruise soon. What’s happened? This week, Carnival announced that it is rolling out a new “Express Dining” option on more than a dozen of its ships. The cruise giant says that the new dining experience is designed to offer “a freshly prepared multi-course dinner experience in under an hour for groups of six guests or fewer.” The idea behind Express Dining is that if Carniva…

After years of AI disrupting industries and streamlining repetitive workflows, the technology is now poised to transform animation. In 2024, director and writer Tom Paton’s AiMation Studios released Where the Robots Grow, a fully AI-animated feature film. Everything from animation and voice acting to music was generated using AI, at a cost of just $8,000 per minute—totaling around $700,000 for the 87-minute production. While IMDB reviewers criticized the film as “soulless and uninspired,” it proved that AI can deliver full-length animated features at a fraction of traditional budgets. But it’s not just filmmakers driving this shift. Indie game developers want to prototy…

The used-car e-commerce platform Carvana Co. (NYSE: CVNA) is planning to do something it has never done before: split its stock. If completed, the move will significantly reduce the per-share price of CVNA stock, without affecting the company’s total value. But first, it needs to be approved by shareholders. Here’s what you need to know about Carvana’s proposed stock split. What is a stock split? A stock split is a mechanism by which a company can increase or decrease the number of its shares by dividing those shares or combining them. There are two types of stock splits: a forward split and a reverse split. A forward split is the most common, and the …

More than a decade after Casey Anthony was accused of murdering her daughter in one of the country’s most notorious murder cases, this weekend she emerged on TikTok to reintroduce herself. “This is my first of probably many recordings on a series that I’m starting,” Anthony says in the three-minute-long video recorded from her car. “I am a legal advocate. I am a researcher. I’ve been in the legal field since 2011 and in this capacity, I feel that it’s necessary, if I’m going to continue to operate appropriately as a legal advocate, that I start to advocate for myself and also advocate for my daughter.” Anthony became a national figure when her 2-year-old …

If you work in an office, chances are good that you’re familiar with the “slop bowl,” TikTok’s term for the ubiquitous lunch of nine-to-fivers that involves a bunch of ingredients mixed together with a base of salad or rice. Now, Cava, the fast-casual Mediterranean-inspired restaurant chain, is introducing its first-ever merch line that pays homage to its fans’ most beloved slop bowl ingredients. The collection is set to debut on the Cava Shop on Thursday, November 13. It includes a hat emblazoned with the word “Feta,” which, according to a press release, is “a staple for the MILF (Man, I Love Feta, of course) crew”; a T-shirt that doubles as an ode to Cava’…

CAVA Group, Inc. (NYSE: CAVA), the parent company of Cava, a Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant brand, announced it is opening up to 68 new U.S. locations in fiscal 2025, after reporting better-than-expected first quarter earnings results. Cava, also known as Cava Grill, currently operates 382 locations across the United States, in 26 states and Washington, D.C. (as of the close of Q1). 2024 was Cava’s first full calendar year as a public company. While Cava told Fast Company it does not release a full list of future locations, a look at the website shows restaurants in the following cities are “coming soon“: Phoenix, AZ Huntington Beach, CA Plantatio…

CAVA hopes to expand its physical footprint after a year of financial success, CEO Brett Schulman announced in the company’s fourth quarter earnings call Tuesday. Over the 2024 fiscal year—CAVA’s first full calendar year as a public company—the Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant chain saw a revenue growth of 28.3% and delivered four straight quarters of free cash flow. And after opening 58 new restaurants this past year, the company anticipates new market openings in Detroit, South Florida, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis. “We’re very excited to continue to grow those markets and build upon the presence we have in existing regions,” Schulman tells Fast Company. …