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Visual communications platform Canva has released its second annual Visual Economy Report, bringing together insights from over 3,000 business leaders around the world on the drivers and impact of visual communications.

The Visual Economy report surveyed 3,707 business leaders from marketing, sales, HR, and operations who understand their company's revenue goals. This group also influences their organization's audience engagement strategy and how internal teams communicate with each other, other teams, and the company as a whole.

Specifically, Canva surveyed 257 business leaders (director and above, VP and above, C-suite and above) in India across 12 markets, including 331 in the US, 317 in Australia, 311 in the UK, 321 in Germany, 320 in Spain, 320 in France, 320 in Brazil, 320 in Mexico, 320 in Japan, 320 in Indonesia and 250 in South Korea.

The company commissioned business intelligence firm Morning Consult to study how they approach using visual communication tools in the workplace and the role AI plays in improving productivity, enhancing creativity and streamlining workflows. Key findings from Indian respondents revealed a number of key insights:

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Unlock business benefits

Nearly three-quarters (73%) say visual communication tools have improved their business performance. From accelerating content creation and team collaboration to increasing audience engagement, visually-driven communication is significantly enhancing how organizations save time and money. As a result, 70% of leaders are investing more in visual communication tools than they did last year.

AI accelerates productivity

Tightening budgets and increasing demand for content have led 89% of leaders to consider AI-powered tools as an option to accelerate their content production needs. While the majority (92%) agree that AI has improved the quality of visual content, concerns remain around plagiarism (80%), bias (84%) and job loss (81%).

Democratizing Design

The ability to communicate visually is now an essential skill in the workplace, regardless of role. The majority of leaders (97%) expect employees in non-design roles to have some level of design sensibility to communicate effectively within their organizations. As a result, more than two-thirds (67%) provide training to employees in non-design roles to meet some standard of design competency.

Accelerating Scaling Through Collaboration

More than a third of leaders (41%) cite a lack of cross-team collaboration and complex workflows (38%) as challenges when creating and enhancing content. As a result, business leaders are prioritizing real-time collaboration (96%), more streamlined workflows (95%) and all-in-one functionality (95%) when investing in a visual communications platform.

You need the right tools to unleash your creativity

85% believe that resistance to new technology from senior stakeholders stifles creativity in the workplace, and 82% believe that siloed teams and a lack of cross-functional collaboration hinder imaginative thinking and innovative outcomes.

From compelling presentations to engaging videos and interactive data visualizations, visuals have become a means of communication that allows organizations to cut through the noise.

“We use Canva for almost everything templated, from presentations to digital signage, internal websites, invitations and playbooks. The possibilities are endless. The ability to easily collaborate and share designs across many teams is a huge time saver. What would normally take days is now completed in just minutes,” said Rebecca Janes, Creative Designer and Environmental Branding Strategist, FedEx Global Brand.

The need to communicate visually, internally and externally is driving demand across organizations for easy-to-use and interoperable visual communication tools. The convergence of AI and visual communication has also opened up endless possibilities for all professionals to create impactful content and produce it at scale.

“Visual communication is humanity's most powerful medium ever, and it's even more important in the digital age, building bridges across the workplace and engaging audiences like never before. Visuals are emerging as the currency of true connection,” said Cameron Adams, co-founder and chief product officer at Canva. “Harnessing the power of visuals and enhancing it with AI capabilities not only helps teams communicate, but it also gives leaders a crucial advantage as they approach recruiting, marketing and sales while looking to drive better results with their financial investments.”

You can read Canva’s full Visual Economy Report 2024 here.