Adobe kicked off its annual Adobe MAX conference today with a bold showcase of AI-powered tools designed to transform the creative process from ideation to production. With over 10,000 creative professionals, marketers, and storytellers gathered in Los Angeles, the company unveiled a wave of innovations across its Firefly, Creative Cloud, and GenStudio platforms, cementing its position at the forefront of AI-driven creativity.
At the heart of Adobe’s announcements is a commitment to democratising creativity through AI. The company introduced new studio-quality generative audio and video tools within Adobe Firefly, enabling creators to produce end-to-end video content with features like Generate Soundtrack and Generate Speech (both in public beta), as well as a new AI-powered timeline-based video editor (private beta).
Creative professionals using Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, and Premiere will benefit from a suite of new AI tools that offer pixel-level precision and time-saving automation. Highlights include:
- Generative Fill with model selection in Photoshop for text-to-image creation.
- Generative Upscale using Topaz Labs’ tech to enhance images to 4K.
- Harmonize for seamless AI-assisted compositing.
- AI Object Mask in Premiere (public beta) for isolating subjects in video.
- Assisted Culling in Lightroom (public beta) to streamline photo selection.
For high-volume production needs, Adobe introduced Firefly Creative Production (private beta), allowing teams to edit thousands of images simultaneously, replacing backgrounds, applying color grading, and cropping with a no-code interface.
Adobe also debuted conversational AI assistants powered by agentic AI, which allow users to generate content simply by describing what they want. These assistants are being integrated into Adobe Express, Firefly, and Photoshop, with previews shown for third-party chatbot platforms.
In a move to give creators more control, Adobe expanded access to a wide range of generative AI models:
- Adobe Firefly Models – Commercially safe models for video, audio, imaging, vectors, design, and 3D, including the new Firefly Image Model 5 (public beta) with 4MP resolution and photorealistic quality.
- Industry Partner Models – Integrated models from Google, OpenAI, Runway, Luma AI, and new partners ElevenLabs and Topaz Labs, offering flexibility across Adobe apps.
- Firefly Custom Models (private beta) – Personalized models that creators can train using their own reference assets to generate content in their unique style.
Adobe also introduced Firefly Foundry, a new offering that enables businesses to build proprietary generative AI models tailored to their brand. These models, trained on existing IP and built atop Firefly’s commercially safe foundation, support all major asset types such as image, video, audio, vector, and 3D to accelerating campaign delivery and unlocking new creative possibilities.
Adobe MAX 2025 continues through October 30, featuring keynote speakers like filmmaker James Gunn, YouTube innovator Mark Rober, and actress-comedian Jessica Williams. The event blends inspiration, education, and entertainment, underscoring Adobe’s mission to empower creators of all skill levels.
“Our AI at Adobe is made to create and built for the creators who paint the world with their imagination,” said David Wadhwani, Adobe’s President of Digital Media. “We believe every creator should be able to harness the economic and artistic opportunities flowing from generative AI and the exploding global demand for creative content.”
With these announcements, Adobe reaffirms its vision of AI as a creative co-pilot (not a replacement) designed to amplify human imagination while respecting creators’ rights.
Yonk is a geek who is fortunate enough to have an equally geeky Star Wars fan for a wife, who owns a LEGO Millennium Falcon encased in a glass coffee table as their home’s centre-piece.
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