Canvas AI Features
In July 2025, Canvas announced a partnership with OpenAI that will include new AI features and functionality that range in their availability from right now to 2026. Canvas' official announcement can be found here: Instructure and OpenAI Announce Global Partnership to Embed AI Learning Experiences within Canvas.
Included below are all officially announced or previewed AI tools tied to IgniteAI that are showing up in release notes and Canvas help pages as of early 2026.
Last updated 3/23/2026.
Ask IgniteAI
A large-scale integration of AI features across Canvas, IgniteAI can be used by Teachers “directly within Canvas or Mastery to conduct tasks such as creating quizzes, generating rubrics, summarizing discussions, aligning content to outcomes and more” (press release linked below).
Feature Category | Availability | AI Feature | Description | Primary Users | Example Use | Resource |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Course Communication | Enabled at Boise State University | Discussion Summaries | Generates an AI summary of discussion threads highlighting major themes, questions, and participation patterns. Helps instructors quickly review long discussions. | Instructors | An instructor reviews a 60-post discussion and reads the AI summary to quickly identify key ideas students discussed. | |
Course Navigation | Enabled at Boise State University | Smart Search | AI-powered semantic search within a course that allows users to type natural language questions to locate pages, assignments, discussions, or announcements. | Students, Instructors | A student types “where is the syllabus?” and Canvas surfaces the course syllabus page. | Article: Smart Search in Canvas |
Communication & Inclusion | Enabled at Boise State University | Translation | Provides real-time translation for Canvas discussions, announcements, and Inbox messages to support multilingual communication. | Students, Instructors | A student writes a discussion reply in Spanish and another student translates it instantly into English. | |
Assessment Creation | Preview / Beta TBD | Question Authoring | AI assists instructors in generating quiz questions or item bank questions based on prompts or course material. Questions can be edited before publishing. | Instructors | An instructor pastes a reading summary and Canvas generates several draft quiz questions. | Canvas AI Question Authoring |
Course Design | Not available at Boise State University | Rubric Generator | Automatically creates a draft rubric based on an assignment description. Requires Enhanced Rubrics and allows editing before saving. | Instructors | An instructor writes an essay prompt and generates a rubric aligned with grading criteria. | Canvas Rubric Generator |
Learning Analytics | Preview / Beta TBD | Discussion Insights | Provides AI analysis of discussion contributions to help instructors identify relevant responses, engagement patterns, and themes. | Instructors | An instructor reviews AI insights to identify which posts most directly address the prompt. | Canvas Discussion Insights |
Grading Support | Preview / Early Access | Grading Assistance
TBD | Suggests draft feedback comments and scoring guidance in SpeedGrader to help instructors evaluate open-ended student work more efficiently. | Instructors | When grading essays, Canvas suggests feedback comments aligned with rubric criteria. | Canvas AI Grading Assistance |
Platform Assistant | Not available at Boise State University | IgniteAI Agent | A contextual AI assistant embedded in Canvas designed to help users navigate Canvas, answer course questions, and assist with tasks. | Students, Instructors | A student asks the agent “When is my next assignment due?” and receives a course-specific response. | Canvas IgniteAI Agent |
Future Development | Not Currently Available TBD | AI Assignment Workflows | Planned Canvas functionality to support assignments that include structured AI interactions or guided AI learning activities. | Students, Instructors | Students complete an assignment that includes guided AI tutoring or AI-supported brainstorming. | Canvas AI Roadmap |
AI Feature and Functionality Next Steps
If you have questions, comments, or feedback about any of these tools, please Contact the Boise State Help Desk.
For more information about how features are selected to be turned on or not, see How Tool Changes Make Their Way Into Boise State Tools.
Question: will these features be available by sub-account or globally, across all of Boise State Canvas?
Answer: we don’t know yet. Following existing patterns of previous feature launches, it is likely that the features can be turned on globally or more selectively in sub-accounts. We will pass along information as we get it.