Google's answer to Canva is an AI tool where you prompt, not design

Google is entering the creative-design market with a new image-creation and editing tool called Google Pics, which will become part of its Google Workspace suite for business customers and premium Google AI subscribers. The product is powered by Google’s Nano Banana image-generation model and will roll out over the coming weeks to most Workspace customers and to those who pay for Google AI Pro or Ultra.

Like popular design tools such as Adobe Express and Canva, Google Pics is meant for everyday design tasks people encounter at work and sometimes at home — creating a poster, social media posts, or other visuals and illustrations. But unlike Canva, where artists, illustrators, and photographers can publish templates, graphics, photos, and other art to a marketplace and earn royalties, Google Pics is centered on generating things with AI, which was trained on artists’ work. And unlike Adobe Express, a tool creators often use to make that work in the first place, Google Pics is built around prompting to create rather than designing something from scratch.

The app also includes other editing tools, such as ones to isolate and transform objects and to modify or translate text inside images. It supports collaborative editing and lets users generate several different versions of a requested image so they can choose the one they like best.

The software will be built into Google Workspace, starting with Docs and Slides, which begins rolling out today. It will later come to Google Drive, the company says.

Why it matters

By building AI image generation directly into Workspace rather than selling it as a standalone product, Google is betting it can pull everyday design tasks — and the revenue tied to them — away from dedicated tools like Canva and Adobe Express.