{"id":648677,"date":"2026-05-04T08:56:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T08:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648677\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T08:56:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T08:56:34","slug":"as-ai-layoffs-ravage-tech-cliff-obrecht-explains-what-it-takes-to-survive-at-canva-capital-brief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/648677\/","title":{"rendered":"As AI layoffs ravage tech, Cliff Obrecht explains what it takes to survive at Canva \u2014 Capital Brief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As AI layoffs ravage tech, Cliff Obrecht explains what it takes to survive at Canva \u2014 Capital Brief<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#content\" class=\"focus-state sr-only left-1\/2 top-1.5 z-40 -translate-x-1\/2 bg-white focus:not-sr-only focus:absolute focus:p-1.5 sm:top-2\"><br \/>\nSkip to content<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Printed<br \/>\nby<br \/>\nfor personal, non-commercial use only.<br \/>\nFor other rights, contact<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.capitalbrief.com\/article\/as-ai-layoffs-ravage-tech-cliff-obrecht-explains-what-it-takes-to-survive-at-canva-321daba2-f5b9-4f6f-8ee2-8cb3602f4efa\/mailto:licensing@capitalbrief.com\" class=\"text-cobalt-600 link-underline\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">licensing@capitalbrief.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At Blackbird\u2019s Sunrise event the Canva COO said growth in headcount would slow to 5% from 50% in earlier years as he unveiled a new AI competency framework for staff.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777884991_143_.png\" class=\"mb-2\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Rick Baker and Cliff Obrecht on stage at Sunrise.<br \/>\nSimon Thomsen.<\/p>\n<p>Canva is Australia\u2019s most successful startup. By Andreessen Horowitz\u2019s latest count, it is also the third most-visited generative AI product on the web, behind only ChatGPT and Gemini.<\/p>\n<p>At Blackbird\u2019s Sunrise summit this week, co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht laid out what it is taking to stay competitive.<\/p>\n<p>Engineers inside Canva are now graded against a seven-level AI competency framework, Obrecht told Blackbird partner Rick Baker in front of a packed room on stage at Sunrise, running from basic code completion at level one to \u201crunning a team of agents autonomously 24\/7\u201d at the top.<\/p>\n<p>The expectations attached to each specialty are being \u201cratcheted up\u201d as the company progresses.<\/p>\n<p><a x-bind:href=\"https:\/\/www.capitalbrief.com\/article\/as-ai-layoffs-ravage-tech-cliff-obrecht-explains-what-it-takes-to-survive-at-canva-321daba2-f5b9-4f6f-8ee2-8cb3602f4efa\/getLink\" x-bind:class=\"(isCopied) &amp;&amp; 'bg-zinc-200 hover:bg-zinc-200'\" x-on:click.prevent=\"copyLink\" data-no-swup=\"\" class=\"flex h-10 w-10 items-center justify-center rounded-full border border-zinc-200 transition duration-300 hover:bg-zinc-100\"><\/p>\n<p><\/a><br \/>\n<a x-bind:href=\"https:\/\/www.capitalbrief.com\/article\/as-ai-layoffs-ravage-tech-cliff-obrecht-explains-what-it-takes-to-survive-at-canva-321daba2-f5b9-4f6f-8ee2-8cb3602f4efa\/getLinkedIn\" x-on:click.prevent=\"openLinkedIn\" data-no-swup=\"\" class=\"flex h-10 w-10 items-center justify-center rounded-full border border-zinc-200 transition duration-300 hover:bg-zinc-100\"><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Topics:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.capitalbrief.com\/topic\/canva\/\" class=\"link-underline-hover text-cobalt-600\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canva<\/a>,<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.capitalbrief.com\/topic\/artificial-intelligence\/\" class=\"link-underline-hover text-cobalt-600\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Artificial intelligence<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1730774470.png\" x-bind:class=\"$store.authentication.state.isAuthenticated || (Boolean(context ==='articleInline')) ?&#10;    'w-14 h-14 sm:w-20 sm:h-20' :&#10;    'w-16 h-16 sm:w-20 sm:h-20'\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sign up to The Edition<\/p>\n<p>Sign up to The Edition<\/p>\n<p>Signed up to The Edition<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776340575_734_1730774470.png\" x-bind:class=\"$store.authentication.state.isAuthenticated || (Boolean(context ==='articleInline')) ?&#10;    'w-14 h-14 sm:w-20 sm:h-20' :&#10;    'w-16 h-16 sm:w-20 sm:h-20'\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sign up to Standup<\/p>\n<p>Sign up to Standup<\/p>\n<p>Signed up to Standup<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-xs text-zinc-500 sm:text-center sm:text-sm\">\n\u00a9 2026 Capital Brief Pty Ltd\n<\/p>\n<p>Close<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-3 text-sm text-zinc-600\">\nYour email address will be stored in accordance with our<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.capitalbrief.com\/terms-and-privacy\/\" class=\"link-underline text-cobalt-600\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">privacy policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As AI layoffs ravage tech, Cliff Obrecht explains what it takes to survive at Canva \u2014 Capital Brief&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,8417,105],"class_list":["post-648677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-canva","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}