Women’s Experiences in Producing and Communicating Digital Products Using Canva AI on Instagram

Despite the rapid adoption of AI-based design tools, limited research examines how women interpret their interaction with generative AI within digital product production and platform-based communication. Existing studies largely emphasize technological efficiency or algorithmic visibility, leaving underexplored the reflective communicative processes occurring during human–AI collaboration. This study addresses this gap by investigating women’s lived experiences in producing and communicating digital products using Canva AI on Instagram. Using an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach, the research involved seven women aged 22–35 who actively use AI-enabled features in Canva. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews and qualitative analysis of Instagram posts, and analyzed through iterative coding, thematic clustering, and interpretative synthesis. Findings are organized into five themes: Canva AI as a collaborative production tool; authenticity as negotiated curation of AI outputs; creative agency through prompt-writing and modification; visual aesthetics as product identity strategy; and Instagram as a site of visibility negotiation. The study conceptualizes human–AI interaction as dialogic digital communication and highlights AI tools’ potential to expand women’s creative-economic participation while sustaining agency.