Adobe execs say artists need to embrace AI or get left behind

Adobe is going all in on generative AI models and tools, even if that means turning away creators who dislike the technology. Artists who refuse to embrace AI in their work are “not going to be successful in this new world without using it,” says Alexandru Costin, vice president of generative AI at Adobe.

In an interview with The Verge, Costin said that he “isn’t aware” of any plans for Adobe to launch products that don’t include generative AI for creators who prefer to manually complete tasks or oppose how AI is changing the creative industry.

“We have older versions of our products that don’t use gen AI, but I wouldn’t recommend using them,” Costin said. “Our goal is to make our customers successful, and we think that in order for them to be successful, they need to embrace the tech.”

And according to Adobe’s President of Digital Media, David Wadhwani, the company is unlikely to accommodate creators who think otherwise.

“We’ve always innovated with conviction, and we believe in the conviction of what we’re doing here,” said Wadhwani, acknowledging that some creatives have loudly criticized Adobe’s adoption of generative AI technology. “People will either agree with that conviction or they won’t, but we think our approach is the one that wins frankly in the short term, but certainly in the long term.”

Adobe is in a difficult position — while many of its customers, particularly businesses and large creative teams, are hungry for AI features that can increase productivity, many artists openly detest the technology and fear how it will impact their livelihoods. Given the demand already exists, however, Adobe would be risking its dominant position in the creative software market if it ignored what many customers are asking for. If Adobe doesn’t develop these tools, other companies will, and they may not make the effort to do so in a way that respects artists’ work.

There are also communities of people online who harbor an extreme hatred of AI regardless of how it’s been applied, and will go out of their way to condemn and avoid interacting with it. For example, when a “shot-for-shot” remake of the Princess Mononoke movie trailer made with Kling recently went viral, it was briefly taken offline by its creator following intense backlash from fans of the original Hayao Miyazaki classic who felt the video was disrespectful or outright ugly.

But the generative AI features like those powered by Adobe’s Firefly models are the most adopted products Adobe has ever released, according to Wadhwani, which is all the signal the company needs to continue on the same path. There are plenty of generative AI models that already compete with Adobe’s Firefly lineup, from both heavy hitters like OpenAI and Google, and smaller niche startups that are trying to carve out their own place in the industry. And in many cases, Adobe is the one playing catch up. The forthcoming “Project Concept” collaborative canvas, which also includes text-to-image tools and an AI remixing feature, is similar to existing apps like Figma’s FigJam and Kaiber’s Superstudio, for example.

Adobe says it aims to implement AI in a way that gives artists more time to focus on actually being creative rather than replacing them entirely, such as making tools more efficient and removing tedious tasks like resizing or masking objects. The company is essentially trying to appeal to both sides by giving its AI tools very specific purposes inside its Creative Cloud applications, rather than pitching them as a means to replace every aspect of content creation.

“We think that demand for content is insatiable. We also think that human creativity will be a critical part of it,” said Wadhwani. “If you just rely on AI for all this stuff, you’re going to end up with a lot more content that looks like the same content everyone else is making.”

What we’re likely to see is a greater divide between smaller artists and the wider creative industry. The demand for effectively every kind of content, from images and copy for advertising, to the TV shows and other media we consume, is growing rapidly. An Adobe survey reports that it increased two-fold between 2021-2023, and could increase up to 2000 percent by 2025, which is pushing companies to find new ways to affordably increase production. 

Generative AI tools — many of which promise to automate repetitive or technically challenging tasks — are a highly appealing solution to meet such demands. But plenty of people still value the work that goes into manual creative processes, and I don’t see that going away entirely.

“I think there will be a thirst for artists who do things by hand,” said Wadhwani. “In the last decade I can take a picture and run it through a process that makes it look like a painting, but I’m not going to value that ‘painting’ the same way I would an artist who actually took the time to make a real painting.”

There’s little doubt that generative AI is changing the creative landscape though. Adobe says the technology will create new jobs, but those jobs will be different, and some specialized roles may disappear entirely. It’s also just difficult to avoid AI art generally these days — platforms like Etsy that were created for creators to sell hand-made wares are now inundated with it, and it’s harder for artists to find exposure online now they have to compete with AI content farms.

Adobe is the dominant provider of creative design software and few other companies provide a similarly connected ecosystem of products. That makes it hard for customers to simply jump ship if they don’t agree with the direction it’s taking, even if it is trying to be considerate about how generative AI is being implemented. But if its endorsement of AI ruffles enough feathers, then that could give way for new competitors to appease the users that Adobe is leaving behind.

And if the backlash presented by online creators is any indication, that’s a sizable market that Adobe is at risk of losing. It seems Adobe just thinks the opportunity that AI adopters present is even larger.