This AI-based Microsoft tool will soon render Canva useless for creative professionals

Microsoft has made a major investment in OpenAI's Dall.E-2 which became popular for generating images from tests, with the help of first-party applications and services. During the Ignite conference, the company announced the launch of an AI-based Microsoft tool that uses AI and poses tough competition to Canva. It's a simple graphic design application called Microsoft Designer. The app is available for free and is a part of Office productivity software subscriptions. The software is basically a replacement for Canva.

Microsoft has sought to demonstrate the value of Office subscriptions by adding new capabilities, in fact, earlier this year, it raised the prices of some bundles aimed at businesses. Currently, the company is flaunting its Designer, Create and Image Creator as vital elements of a family of Microsoft Creator tools. Besides being a part of Microsoft 365, these tools are also integrated with Bing and Microsoft's Edge browser.

Users can deploy Designer for creating attractive social media posts, invitations, brochures, and other types of posts by either starting from scratch or using one of the provided templates by Microsoft. The integrated Dall.E-2 model will enable users to create custom images using text or images. Microsoft executives have described Designer as both, a V.1 app and an AI-powered design service. The software is already in use for PowerPoint Developer to help users make more good-looking presentations with AI assistance and is expected to be added to more Microsoft tools in the coming years.

Those interested in the new AI-based Microsoft tool should sign up for early access to the free web preview. Once the app is available for public use, the company plans to make it available either as a free app or a premium app with more features added which will be a part of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family members.