Canva cuts 22% of staff as Comcast ties layoffs to AI in service

Canva cuts 22% of staff in a 'refounding'

Canva is restructuring 1,271 employees, or 22% of its workforce. Staff face layoffs, changed roles or requests to relocate.

Perkins announced the move in a staff message titled "An important update on our team". She wrote that Canva's growth rate slowed for the first time in a decade. Departing staff can keep company-issued MacBooks. They will receive at least six months' pay, a year of health insurance and a one-year LinkedIn Premium membership.

Why Canva says small changes won't be enough

Perkins wrote that she explored a wide range of alternatives. She concluded that "small changes won't be enough". Canva needs to "refound" itself around small, empowered teams, she said.

The reorganisation will combine Canva's product, growth and platform teams into a single "Product Org". More product teams will move to the Sydney headquarters. Some staff will be asked to relocate. The message did not mention AI. It did say that "New technology is transforming what people can create, how they create it, and what they expect from the products they use". Perkins did not cite financial pressures as a reason for the cuts. Canva is privately held. It does not face the same disclosure requirements as a listed business.

Perkins did not say how many of the 1,271 will leave. She did not say how many will change roles instead.

Comcast puts a number on AI's role in service cuts

Comcast's customer service contact rate is down 20% this year. It has eliminated more than 30 million service interactions year to date compared with 2025.

CFO Jason Armstrong spoke on the third-quarter earnings call. He told investors Comcast expects a restructuring charge of "over $1 billion" in the fourth quarter.

Layoffs are coming within weeks. They will land hardest on Comcast Cable, according to Fierce Network.

The cable unit lost 144,000 residential broadband customers in the quarter. That was worse than the 91,000 a year earlier. It was also past the 116,800 that analysts surveyed by FactSet expected.

Comcast says Cresta handles the "agentic front end" for assisted channels. Sierra is the other half of the stack.

Light Reading reported how executives framed the restructuring. They framed it as removing management layers. They also framed it as freeing money for growth areas.

The charge and the cuts land in the same division. That is where the AI does most of the work. Comcast has not said outright that the restructuring is about replacing people with software. BNP Paribas analyst Sam McHugh told clients he expects roughly 203,000 more broadband defections in the fourth quarter.

AI is now part of the layoff language

Microsoft cut 4,800 positions. Chief people officer Amy Coleman wrote that "The roles eliminated today are not being replaced by AI". She added that "AI is changing how work gets done".

Oracle reduced its workforce by 21,000 employees. That was over the past year, according to InformationWeek. Dropbox said on 28 October it would lay off about 200 of its 2,113 employees. That is 9% of staff. CTO Ali Dasdan would step down, Dropbox said. Microsoft is separately offering a voluntary exit package to 60,000 of its 223,000 employees. The package goes up to its "level 70". InformationWeek's tracker lists reasons companies give for cuts. They include macroeconomic factors, inflation, revenue declines and internal restructuring alongside AI.

A layoff blamed on AI can read the same. So can a layoff blamed on a weak quarter. Both can read the same in a staff email.

What happens next

Canva's remaining staff get two rounds of meetings next week. One is company-wide. The other is with their reorganised teams. Comcast's cuts are expected within weeks, according to Fierce Network.

Canva reported 260 million monthly users last year. It also reported $3.5 billion in revenue. It reached a $40 billion valuation in 2021. Comcast plans to spin off NBCUniversal and Sky into a separate public company in 2027. That would leave the cable business to stand alone. Neither company has said how many people will actually leave. Neither has said how the changes will affect product and support timelines.

The numbers behind the cuts

• 1,271: roles affected at Canva, equal to 22% of its workforce.
• $40 billion: Canva's valuation in 2021, before the restructuring.
• 30 million: service interactions Comcast says it eliminated year to date, as its contact rate fell 20%.
• 144,000: residential broadband customers Comcast lost in the third quarter, against 91,000 a year earlier and 116,800 expected by FactSet analysts.
• Over $1 billion: the restructuring charge Comcast expects to book in the fourth quarter.
• 4,800: positions Microsoft cut, against 21,000 Oracle cut over the past year.