Adobe releases new AI tool that can generate visual effects instantly, what used to take hours can now be done in one minute

Adobe released a new Firefly tool for Photoshop and Illustrator on Tuesday, allowing graphic designers to use the company's internal AI models in more ways. Additionally, Adobe's new feature enables creative workers to describe the effects they want through brief prompts and receive textures or images generated by AI, tasks that used to take hours can now be completed in one minute.

According to media reports, as Adobe increases its investment in AI, some loyal customers feel threatened because the company uses their work to train Firefly. Adobe is compensating Adobe Stock photographers and illustrators with annual bonuses for this privilege. Adobe stated that they are taking a "creator-friendly approach," providing a certain amount of generation points to Creative Cloud users each month at no extra cost.

Deepa Subramaniam, Adobe's Vice President of Product Marketing, said in a media interview, "All these values are already included in their Creative Cloud plans. We just want to put this technology in the hands of users, so the limit of points they receive is very generous."

Illustrator is introducing a new test tool called "Generate Shape Fill," allowing users to add details and textures to shapes through text prompts or style references. This feature is supported by the updated Firefly Vector model released on Tuesday. In a demonstration, Adobe Creative Cloud evangelist Paul Trani showed how the new feature is equipped with sliders for creators to choose the amount of detail to add. After Firefly generates these details, Illustrator allows users to edit them, distinguishing it from most AI image generators.

As for Photoshop, Adobe is widely rolling out Firefly's text-to-image generation feature, allowing users to create AI images in the application by pressing the "Generate Image" button and describing the effects they want. This feature is supported by Adobe Firefly's Image 3 base model, which was previously only available in beta.

Despite not charging premium subscription fees for AI generation like some competitors, Adobe is currently seeing good returns. During the latest earnings call, the company stated that customers are opting for more expensive plans to receive more Firefly generation points (one generation point is equivalent to one generation in other AI tools). Since its release in March 2023, Adobe stated that Firefly has generated over 9 billion images.

In addition, Illustrator has updated some new features without AI. Adobe's new Dimension tool allows users to calculate the length and angle of images in Illustrator. The testing tool Mockup in Illustrator allows users to realistically place logos on any product by uploading images. In contrast, previously Mockup only allowed logos to be placed on a predefined set of images. Through Retype, Illustrator can recognize and match fonts, allowing users to use them elsewhere.

Adobe's stock price fell 1.22% in midday trading on Tuesday, to $548.02. The company's stock price has fallen by 5.48% so far this year, compared to the S&P 500 index, which has risen by over 17% this year.