Adobe announces Firefly for AI-driven creative

“Our belief is that generative AI will enhance human ingenuity, not replace it,” said Shantanu Narayen introducing Adobe Firefly at Adobe Summit today. Firefly is a new group of generative AI models focused on creating images, video and text effects. Firefly uses generative AI with graphics tools like brushes, color gradients and video tools to speed up production and make it easier for creators to make high quality content. The videos and images projected on-screen during the two-hour Summit keynote had been generated by Firefly.

Adobe’s generative AI. The generative AI announcement predictably stole the show although there were some other new product announcements. “Over time,” said Narayen, “AI will help us reimagine every aspect of marketing.” He could not resist adding that Adobe has incorporated AI in its creative products for well over a decade.

The first Firefly tools are available today in beta. Narayen also emphasized that Adobe is seeking to protect human creators, both by developing a model for compensating for use of their work and by moving towards a global standard “Do not train” metadata tag that creators could use in an attempt to ward off AI infringements on their content.

Summit also saw the launch of Sensei GenAI, natively embedded into the Adobe Experience Platform, although it was not immediately clear how this would enhance the platform’s existing Sensei AI capabilities. Again, the aim seems to be to allow users to work with generative AI capabilities within Adobe Experience Cloud rather than using independent tools and migrating results to Adobe.

Why we care. In many ways it would be shocking if Adobe had not taken this route to incorporating generative AI into its platform. Although Adobe was one of the first marketing clouds, its roots are in iconic creative tools like Photoshop and Illustrator. The promise, of course, is that Adobe users will be able to reap the benefits of generative AI within the Adobe ecosystem, rather than have recourse to one of the many independent tools rushing to market.

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Adobe Product Analytics. If overshadowed by Firefly, Product Analytics was a significant announcement. The Adobe Experience Platform already includes, among its many components, Customer Journey Analytics. Product Analytics offers a similarly drillable dashboard by presenting product-related information such as user growth and engagement with features of products and trends. The aim is to align the product team with other teams working on aspects of customer experience.

Adobe also announced Adobe Mix Modeler, a new dashboard giving a cross-channel view of campaign performance allowing real-time optimization of channel spend.

Additional reporting by Chris Wood.