When we look back at the evolution of creative and content work, 2023 and 2024 will stand out as the great divide: the period when generative AI (genAI) fundamentally changed how we create. Last week at Adobe MAX, this sense of “before and after” deepened as Adobe unveiled its latest innovations and reinforced its position as a leader in this revolution for creatives.

Welcome To AI-Enhanced Creativity’s Next Chapter

In a year defined by relentless AI advancement — but not without growing mistrust around how companies use customer data — Adobe has made a deliberate effort to communicate its stance on the role of genAI in creativity and its approach to training models. Their point of view is one we agree with: GenAI is not a replacement for human creativity, and models are only commercially safe when they’re trained on content where there’s permission for use. Even as they’ve expanded their family of Firefly genAI models, Adobe emphasized that the perspective creatives bring to their work – their unique way of coloring the world – stems from imagination, experience, and carefully honed processes. Here are the key developments that caught my eye as windows into creative work’s future:

  • More power, precision, and speed. Adobe launched several new Firefly offerings that will help creators compress and improve time spent on tasks that accelerate time to market with the high-quality content audiences expect. The Firefly Video Model, while still in beta, is the first publicly available video model designed to be safe for commercial use. With it, creators can add video frames to extend a clip that’s too short, speed up editing, and create videos from text or images. The new Firefly Image 3, Generative Workspace in Photoshop, and new Illustrator tools, like Generative Shape Fill, are designed to help creators experiment with new ideas and iterate faster. This accelerates the creative process, leads to faster initial drafts, and allows designers to focus on perfecting the final deliverable.
  • Expanded collaboration and integrated creative workflows. The new Frame.io is expanding beyond video post-production to support collaboration across all creative workflows (photo, audio, design, etc.). This is an interesting move, especially for enterprise firms. It means creative teams can use Frame.io as a central collaboration hub, regardless of the medium, and break down the silos that often exist between different creative disciplines or teams in large organizations. If this works, it will bring critical consolidation to the nonlinear creative process, where teams today often use multiple tools to store, share, and communicate about work in progress.
  • Focus on concepting. The earliest stage of the creative process is crucial, yet it’s usually the most constrained by limited time and resources. Adobe announced Project Concept, an AI-first product for mood-boarding and concepting. As creatives spend less time on mundane, repetitive production tasks, they’ll be able to dedicate more energy to exploring better ideas. Project Concept uses the latest capabilities from Firefly models to help creatives mix images together; transform regions of an asset; and remix styles, backgrounds, and other assets as “ingredients” at the idea stage. And continuing the theme of collaboration, Project Concept will enable creatives to work with other people in Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Express so they can source, organize, ideate, edit, and showcase concepts in one tool. Again, if Adobe delivers on this promise, organizations will have a tool that allows teams to try out a variety of ideas and identify the best ones.

Be Intentional With Your Creative Tools And Processes

As we look ahead to 2025, it’s clear that the pace of change will continue. Creative teams will have a slew of new opportunities and ideas, but it’s impossible to pursue them all. What should you do? Evaluate how your creative toolset can enhance the way you ideate, create, and iterate, leveraging different types of feedback loops and collaboration styles at each stage of the creative process. For some teams, this means extending the use of Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Express, as well as consolidating tools across the creative lifecycle with key stakeholders. The opportunities to step into the future of creative work are here and continuing to arrive at a fast pace. The distance between idea and implementation is shrinking, and the organizations with the best ideas, tools, and processes will be well positioned for this future.

We’re here to help you transform your content strategy and content creation process to better engage your audiences. If you’re a Forrester client and want help evaluating your tech stack, refining your workflows, or assessing your team’s readiness for AI-driven approaches to content, connect with your account team or schedule a guidance session today.