Thousands of staff at Australia's most valuable technology company have stopped work for an entire week, swapping their usual duties for an intensive artificial intelligence (AI) experiment.Over 5300 people at multi-billion dollar software giant Canva's global workforce joined the company's second-ever "AI Discovery Week", which kicked off on Monday.During the optional week-long program, staff ditched meetings and paused all projects to "go deep on AI" and upskill in the rapidly developing technology.LIVE UPDATES: US confirms clash with Iranian forcesCanva founders Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams (Supplied)It involves over 60 talks from speakers at fellow tech behemoths Open AI, Anthropic and Google, workshops and "hackathons".While it was not a mandatory program, it is understood so many staff at Canva's Sydney headquarters opted in that the office ran out of desk space."We see this as an opportunity for folks to tune out of the noise and tune in to what it is they've been wanting to achieve with AI, but haven't been able to crack yet," said Canva's co-founder and chief product officer Cameron Adams."The part I'm most excited about this year is the company-wide Hackathon at the end of the week."The brief is to build something that would have been impossible without AI. Not faster workflows, but genuinely new ones that didn't exist as a realistic option before."The first Canva Discovery Week took place in July last year.READ MORE: Palace silent after balaclava-clad man threatens ex-prince AndrewOver 5300 people at multi-billion dollar software giant Canva's global workforce have joined the company's second-ever "AI Discovery Week". (Canva/LinkedIn)Adams said at the time that the idea was to help upskill Canva employees into an "AI-savvy workforce"."The potential to get left behind in the AI age is real, and leaders absolutely need to provide clear vision and instruction around where AI fits into their team's daily work," he said.Canva, which made its Rich List co-founders Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams multi-billionaires, has invested heavily in AI over the past few years.The $60 billion dollar Sydney start-up snapped up two local AI companies last month in an undisclosed deal.The deal brought the number of Canva's AI acquisitions to eight since 2024, with a reported total of $400 million investment made in the rapidly-growing technology so far.Canva reached its highest-ever valuation of more than $60 billion last year following an employee share sale in August.NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.Download the 9NEWS App here via Apple and Google PlayMake 9News your preferred source on Google by ticking this box hereSign up to our breaking newsletter here