Canva co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins told staff on Wednesday that a companywide restructure will affect 1,271 people, about 22 percent of the design software firm's workforce, including job losses, role changes and requests to relocate^1,2,4.

Perkins described the move as the hardest moment in Canva's 13-year history and said growth had slowed for the first time in a decade^2,6.

In a note later posted on the company's newsroom, she said small adjustments would not be enough and that Canva needed to return to smaller teams with more ownership^1,4,6.

The company said Product, Growth and Platform groups will be brought into one product organization, with overlapping roles consolidated^1,5.

Sydney is to become the primary home for more product teams, and Canva said it has staff in 37 countries, including other Australian cities^1,2,6.

From January, Perkins said most hybrid employees would be expected to spend about two to three days a week in an office, depending on location^1,6.

People leaving will receive at least six months of salary, up to 12 months of health coverage where applicable, career support, and, according to some reports, the option to keep company MacBooks^1,4,6.

Canva also said it would offer $US10,000 grants through a new fund for some departing employees who want to start a business or community project, and ABC News Australia reported the removal of a one-year equity vesting cliff for some recent hires^4,6.

Perkins wrote that new technology is changing how people create and what they expect from products².

ABC News Australia said the company did not name artificial intelligence in the announcement⁶.

The BBC, citing earlier reports, said two backers had marked Canva's value down from about A$60 billion at the end of last year to about A$49 billion, and that the firm had also cut an internal valuation amid AI-related costs; those figures were not in the staff note as quoted by The Verge^2,1.

The share of staff who will be laid off, rather than relocated or reassigned, was not specified in the accounts reviewed^1,2,6.