70% Indian business leaders are allocating more budget on visual tools compared to last year

92% of business leaders in India believe that artificial intelligence (AI) has improved the quality of visual communication. This was one of the findings in Canva’s second annual Visual Economy report, which featured insights from over 3,700 global business leaders on the drivers and impact of visual communication.

The company commissioned business intelligence firm Morning Consult to understand how they are approaching the use of visual communications tools in the workplace and the role AI is playing in their ability to increase productivity, elevate creativity, and streamline workflows. The survey was conducted in 12 markets, including India, the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

From compelling presentations to engaging videos and interactive data visualisations, visuals have become the currency of communication, enabling organisations to cut through the noise. The top findings from Indian respondents include:

Creativity needs the right tools to flourish: 85% believe senior stakeholder resistance to new technology is hindering creativity in the workplace. 82% attribute siloed teams and poor cross-functional collaboration as deterrents to imaginative thinking and fresh outputs.

Unlocking business benefits: Nearly three-quarters (73%) say visual communication tools have increased business performance. From accelerating content creation and team collaboration to stronger audience engagement, visual-first communication is supercharging how organizations save time and money. As a result, 70% of leaders are investing more in visual communication tools than the previous year.

AI fast tracks productivity: Tighter budgets and increased content demands have led 89% of leaders to explore AI-powered tools as options to accelerate their content production needs. The vast majority (92%) agree the quality of visual content has improved because of AI, yet concerns about plagiarism (80%), bias (84%), and job loss (81%) linger.

Design democratised: The ability to communicate visually is now table stakes in the workplace, regardless of role. The majority of leaders (97%) expect employees in non-design roles to possess some design acumen in order to be effective communicators in their organisations. Consequently, more than two-thirds (67%) are now providing training to those not in design roles to meet a certain threshold of design competency.

Accelerating scaling through collaboration: More than one-third (41%) of leaders believe the inability to collaborate across teams and complex workflows (38%) is a challenge when creating and scaling content. As a result, when investing in visual communication platforms, business leaders are emphasising real-time collaboration (96%), more streamlined workflows (95%), and all-in-one functionality (95%).

The need to communicate visually, internally, and externally, is fueling organisation-wide demand 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 high-impact content and to do so at scale. 

"Communicating visually has always been humanity's most powerful medium, and it's even more important in the digital age—bridging workplaces and captivating audiences like never before. It's 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 them with AI capabilities isn’t just beneficial to team communication, it is now a crucial advantage for leaders in their quest to hire, market and sell while aiming to get better results on their financial investments.”

The Visual Economy Report surveyed 3,707 business leaders in marketing, sales, human resources, and operations who have knowledge of company revenue goals. Specifically, it surveyed 257 business leaders (comprising the director, vice president and C-suite professionals) in India, 331 in 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. This group also influences their organisations’ audience engagement strategy and how internal teams communicate with each other, other teams, and the company at large.