How Years of Localization Work Became the Foundation of Canva AI
November 10, 2026
A user in Johannesburg might set Canva to English, prompt in English all week, then switch to a mix of English and Xhosa to plan a weekend braai. Building AI that keeps up with that reality is now part of the localization team’s job. Recorded at LocWorld56 Vancouver, this episode of The Agile Localization Podcast features host Stefan Huyghe in conversation with Celine Halpert, who leads localization at Canva, about how years of foundational localization work are now shaping one of the world’s most widely used AI design tools.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely that of the speaker and do not reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of Crowdin.
A user in Johannesburg might set Canva to English, prompt in English all week, then switch to a mix of English and Xhosa to plan a weekend braai. Building AI that keeps up with that reality is now part of the localization team’s job. Recorded at LocWorld56 Vancouver, this episode of The Agile Localization Podcast features host Stefan Huyghe in conversation with Celine Halpert, who leads localization at Canva, about how years of foundational localization work are now shaping one of the world’s most widely used AI design tools.
Talk to an expert: https://crowdin.info/4avcwKU
Talk to an expert: https://crowdin.info/4avcwKU
What You’ll Learn
- What conference interpreting teaches about cutting through noise to the core message in a boardroom
- Why Canva now hires product managers and technical program managers into localization
- How localization teams are moving into data analysis, A/B testing, and AI prototyping, and negotiating new boundaries with other specialists
- Why a user’s interface language is an unreliable predictor of the language they’ll prompt or create in
- How local teams use market-level data to win disagreements with central product teams
- Why localization is becoming one dimension of personalization, and where culture still trips up generative AI
Celine Halpert is the Head of Localization at Canva, where she oversees how the platform reaches users in more than 100 languages and works on AI to advance digital inclusion for low-resource languages. Celine began her career as a translator and conference interpreter, freelancing from Colombia and Australia, and completed an internship at UNESCO. After a master's in interpreting and translation, she worked in community interpreting in Australian courts and hospitals and studied international social development, experiences that grounded her lifelong focus on accessibility.
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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely that of the speaker and do not reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of Crowdin.
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