Instructure has started incorporating AI directly into Canvas with a few features available now and more on the way. Currently, Canvas has added discussion summaries as well as a smart search option in courses.
Smart Search allows instructors and students to quickly search course content. Smart Search operates based on its understood context – it isn’t restricted to keyword-based searches like we’re used to with Google or other search engines. This does mean that things you may be used to (like including a search term in quotation marks for an exact search) do not work in Smart Search, but Canvas is working on an updated search engine to be replace the current one in 2026. Smart Search also allows you to apply filters to search all sources or limit it to any combination of assignments, announcements, discussions, or pages.
It’s very easy to start using Smart Search in your course – you need to turn on the feature option, and make sure it’s appearing properly in your course navigation. To turn on the feature option, go to the settings page of your course, then click “Feature Options.” Scroll down the list until you get to “Smart Search,” click the red “x,” and select “enabled.” Swap to the Navigation tab, scroll to the bottom, and click “Save” (yes, Smart Search doesn’t appear in the navigation before you hit “save,” but it will show up after!).
For full details on Smart Search, check out Canvas’s Smart Search FAQ.
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