TRO | Anthropic Launches Claude Design

Plus, Meta Dethrones Google in Digital Advertising and AI Shopping Traffic is Converting Better Than Humans

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Meliora Company
April 20, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Subscribe | 20th April, 2026

In this fast-moving Vertical AI economy, headlines are everywhere but optimism is rare.

Here’s our take on 3 stories that will help you be relentlessly optimistic about the future.

1. Anthropic Launches Claude Design

Anthropic has launched Claude Design, a new experimental product that lets users create visuals including prototypes, slides, and one-pagers directly through Claude. The product is aimed at founders, product managers, and others without a design background who need to move quickly from an idea to something visual. Rather than positioning Claude Design as a Canva competitor, Anthropic says it is built to complement tools like Canva - outputs can be exported or sent directly to Canva for collaborative editing. The product can also read a company's codebase and design files to apply an existing design system consistently across every project it creates.

Here’s why this matters: Anthropic has spent the past year making a deliberate push up the enterprise stack - from Claude Code for developers, to Cowork for agentic task automation, and now Claude Design for the non-technical professional. The Canva partnership angle is strategically smart: rather than competing with an established design platform, Anthropic is positioning Claude Design as the top of the funnel and letting Canva handle the polish. That kind of ecosystem thinking is increasingly how AI-native products win. The gap between having an idea and being able to show it is closing fast, and the tools enabling that shift are no longer aimed at designers, they are aimed at everyone.

2. Meta Dethrones Google in Digital Advertising

Meta Platforms is projected to surpass Google in global digital advertising revenue for the first time ever by the end of 2026, according to Emarketer. Meta’s net worldwide ad revenues are forecast to reach US$243.46 billion this year, edging ahead of Google’s projected US$239.54 billion. This lead also translates to market share, with Meta expected to claim 26.8% of global digital ad spend against Google’s 26.4%. The shift is driven by an accelerating growth rate at Meta, forecast to jump to 24.1% this year, compared to Google’s steadier 11.9%. The gap between the two companies has never been this narrow, until now.

Here’s why this matters: Google has held the top position in digital advertising for as long as the modern internet has had one. That era appears to be ending, and it tells us a lot about where the industry is heading. Meta’s growth is intrinsically linked to their investments in AI-powered ad targeting. Their automated campaign tools have made its platforms measurably more effective for advertisers chasing return on spend, and that performance edge is showing up on the revenue line. If Meta is delivering better outcomes, the gravitational pull away from search-based advertising will only strengthen. For Google, its core search advertising model faces pressure from AI-native answer engines that may never serve a traditional ad at all. The digital advertising duopoly isn’t disappearing, but its internal hierarchy is shifting for the first time in a generation.

3. AI Shopping Traffic Is Converting Better Than Humans

AI traffic to US retailers' websites rose 393% in Q1 2026 compared to a year earlier, according to new data from Adobe Analytics, which covers over one trillion visits to US retail sites. AI visitors are converting better, spending more time on site, and driving higher revenue per visit than regular customers. AI traffic converted 42% better than human shoppers in March 2026 - a complete reversal from March 2025, when AI traffic converted 38% worse. Adobe's consumer survey found that 39% of people now use AI for online shopping, with 85% saying it improved their experience, and 66% saying they trust AI tools to provide accurate shopping results.

Here’s why this matters: A year ago, AI traffic was an interesting footnote in retail analytics. Today it is outperforming human shoppers on almost every commercial metric that matters: conversion, engagement, time on site, and revenue per visit. This shift signals that agentic commerce is moving from experiment to engine faster than most retailers planned for. For media and advertising, this changes the economics of how audiences reach products: if AI assistants are increasingly the gateway to purchase decisions, then the question of which brands and products get surfaced by those assistants becomes the new search optimisation battle. The data infrastructure required to serve AI-driven shopping at scale is a significant opportunity. Adobe's warning that roughly a third of product pages cannot currently be accessed by AI properly is actionable. The retailers who close that gap first will not just capture AI traffic, they will capture AI-driven revenue.

Still Curious?

Our Pursuit Of Better

AI personal finance start up, Hiro, has been acquired by OpenAI. Hiro’s tool allows users to model financial scenarios (salary, debts, monthly costs) using AI specifically trained for financial maths. The start up was founded in 2023 and backed by Ribbit Capital and General Catalyst.

Sygaldry, the quantum hardware start up, has raised US$139 million, including a US$105 million Series A. The company is designing AI data centre servers that combine quantum hardware with classical chips, with the goal of running AI workloads faster and more efficiently than GPU’s alone. Commercialisation is targeted for around 2030.

Financial risk management platform, Pillar, raised US$20 million in seed funding, led by a16z. Founded in 2023, the platform automates hedging processes for businesses. It can also build and manage hedge portfolios and adjust positions automatically based on market conditions, volatility, and the client’s risk tolerance.

The Story of the Chapel of Elton

How do you convince Elton John to play an intimate gig at London’s Union Chapel? It was the night that shaped how we think about creative courage, timing, and making the impossible inevitable. It’s a story of how people and technology can merge to create moments that last.

Meliora Team Spotlight

Anthony Abbott - Greece

Anthony is a strategic and outcomes-driven product leader with over 20 years of international business experience in the media and entertainment sector, specialising in digital audio and streaming.

Stuart Wettenhall - Australia

Stuart specialises in digital venture build, platform economics and new market entry. He has held senior roles at Amazon and BBC Studios before leading regional growth for AI video start ups.

The Pursuit of Better, Together

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