Adobe, known for its design software (SW) 'Photoshop', has leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) to target the marketing market. Having focused for many years on developing creative tools such as image and video editing, Adobe is now transforming into a 'B2B (business-to-business) AI platform company' that supports all processes from planning to production, distribution, and analysis of advertising campaigns.
At the 'Adobe Summit 2025' held in Las Vegas, USA, on 18th-19th (local time), Adobe declared that it will open a completely new era where design, marketing, and AI merge into one. Adobe explains that marketers will now be able to complete campaigns or advertisements that previously required dozens of people to work for several months in just one day. The technology that enables this is Adobe's generative AI technology called 'Firefly.'
Until now, creating advertisements required designers and video specialists to draw or take photos themselves. However, now you can simply input text like 'a puppy eating ice cream on a sunny beach,' and it instantly generates the relevant images or videos. Adobe explains that it offers processing speeds and quality high enough to be used directly in advertising, compared to existing general-purpose generative AI services.
Global corporations are already actively utilizing this technology. James Quincey, Chairman of Coca-Cola, noted that "producing an advertisement used to require much money and time to find a photographer or a filming location, but with AI, you can easily create the desired scene right away." He explained that particularly, it has become much easier to quickly change advertising concepts or to produce slightly different versions for each country.
In the social media (SNS) campaign for the major golf tournament 'The Masters,' Adobe AI quickly produced images, increasing consumer participation rates by as much as 26 times compared to before.
Adobe's expansion into new businesses combining 'AI and marketing' is due to the limitations on growth by existing SW services alone. Programs like Photoshop and Illustrator are already widely used. Therefore, Adobe has determined that it needs to further develop an AI platform that connects everything from marketing to customer management for corporate clients.
At this event, Adobe also introduced a new AI feature that automatically determines 'who, what advertisements, and when to show them' by analyzing customer data. Typically, marketers had to sift through data themselves to carry out such tasks, but now, Adobe's 'Agent Orchestrator' handles this job automatically.
Marriott International, the world's largest hotel chain, has greatly improved marketing efficiency by adopting Adobe's AI-based orchestration. Previously, launching a campaign required an average of 110 days and a complex process of 349 steps, but thanks to Adobe AI, the process was significantly simplified. As a result, the speed of modifying marketing content was reduced by 93%, and one campaign produced over 500,000 personalized contents automatically, achieving more than six times the annual sales target.
IBM Consulting also reported that their workload has been reduced thanks to Adobe's AI. Billy Seabrook, Global Chief Design Officer (CDO) at IBM Consulting, stated, "Repetitive tasks accounted for 80% of marketing work, but thanks to Adobe AI, time has been saved, allowing us to focus more on creative ideas."
It is quite impressive that Adobe, which has been familiar with Photoshop and PDF, has transformed into a 'marketing solver' for corporations. As global corporations are already actively utilizing Adobe's AI technology, this AI-based marketing trend is expected to spread even faster in the future.
Market research firm Morningstar recently reported that "Adobe has improved its performance through AI-based solutions such as Firefly and Zen Studio," stating that "last quarter, the content generated solely by Firefly reached 20 billion pieces." It further evaluated that "Firefly is a long-term growth driver for Adobe, and the profitability of the digital experience sector will also increase further."
Dan Romanoff, a Morningstar analyst, explained that "Adobe has many customers using design tools like Photoshop, making it possible to implement well-coordinated sales that provide marketing solutions to them as well."
In fact, Adobe's revenue for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (December 2024 - February 2025) reached $5.7 billion (8.3658 trillion won), marking a 10% increase compared to the previous year, and operating profit was $2.7 billion (3.9627 trillion won), also up 10%, surpassing market expectations. The annual recurring revenue (ARR) for standalone AI products exceeded $125 million (183.1875 billion won), and the company plans to double this figure to over $250 million (366.375 billion won) by the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025.
Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe, stated, "In the age of AI, it is most important to finely personalize customer experiences," adding that "the goal is to help anyone easily implement brand communication beyond creative tools such as PDF and Photoshop."