Adobe’s generative AI tool, Firefly, has reached a new milestone: one billion images generated. This comes four months after the tool launched – a pace that’s propelled by Firefly’s positioning in the ubiquitous Creative Cloud. Given this installed base, Firefly could be the most scaled AI integration yet.
Backing up, what is Firefly? As noted, it’s Adobe’s native generative AI engine. It was previously launched as a standalone tool for creative pros, brand marketers, and other personas to start generating AI-fueled visual assets. But its real path to scale was in the subsequent integration with the Creative Cloud.
We’re talking direct integrations with widely embedded tools like Photoshop to Illustrator. That’s where the real generative AI magic will happen for Firefly, as it’s ingrained into the familiar workflows of ubiquitous software. This makes it more effective for creative pros to streamline production.
And that translates to adoption. In other words, Creative Cloud integration means that Adobe will serve as an effective vessel for AI, accelerating its adoption by bringing it to millions of pros through ubiquitous software products. Those pros include not only creative types but brand marketers and SMBs.
Looming Threat
All the above will play out on a few levels. Creators and marketers will tap into Firefly’s generative AI capabilities to automate and expedite image generation, such as website or press kit materials. They can also use it for inspiration and conceptual ideation to get the creative juices flowing.
This is similar to a concept we’ve examined: AI integrations to aid in writing website copy. The technology won’t always replace human creativity – a hot-button and fear-driven topic these days – but enhance it. Like any software tool (word processing, spreadsheets, etc.), it’s about streamlining work.
Back to Adobe, there are several factors that position it well as an AI vessel. Besides ubiquity and product synergies with the Creative Cloud, it has another key advantage: licensing. One issue around generative is how intellectual property will be attributed when AI training sets ingest creative works.
This is what trains a given generative AI engine to learn specific visual elements and styles, which are then activated by keyword prompts. Here, Adobe can tap into Adobe Stock. Like Google and its image index, this gives Adobe a significant leg up in terms of an asset that can be a natural training set.
But Adobe has an advantage that Google doesn’t have: It owns all those images. Google’s index may be more extensive – offering greater creative range in its generative art – but it doesn’t own any of it. Adobe’s ownership conversely lets it sidestep a looming legal threat facing other AI players.
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That brings us back to Adobe’s one-billion milestone. It has reached that lofty signpost due to several of the advantages outlined above. And this growth rate will only accelerate (it will reach 2 billion faster) as its training sets evolve, and as it continues to boost adoption through Creative-Cloud integrations.
But why is this important for the world of digital marketing, as opposed to artists and graphic designers? In short, one of generative AI’s primary use cases will be brand marketing. And like most emerging tech, that will start with larger brands before gradually moving down market, which gets to SMB territory.
The thought is that marketing requires visual assets, such as the corporate and product-centric stock images seen throughout business websites, as hinted. Generative AI can be used to create custom imagery or at least be a part of the workflow, such as the inspiration and storyboarding workflows noted.
Though it’s not on the tips of everyone’s tongues when listing tech giants that are primed for AI, Adobe could be better positioned than anyone. In fact, it’s a potential disruptor and disruptee, given Adobe Stock. Here, it’s choosing to proactively lean into AI, rather than let an innovator’s dilemma hold it back.
