Adobe has been at the forefront of incorporating AI-based technology into its platforms, with the goal of allowing more people to take an idea from conception to finished product. Today, Adobe is announcing the incorporation of agentic AI across many platforms, including Acrobat, Express, Premiere Pro, and Photoshop.
It should be noted that agentic AI does not create art from scratch. Instead, the technology allows creators to use everyday language to instruct software to solve problems that might otherwise require a mastery of the program’s tools and features.
In one example provided by Adobe, a user opens a photograph of a person sitting at a desk and uses the simple command, “Clean up this image and add a text box that says, ‘San Francisco’ behind the person.” Instantly, the program makes adjustments to the look of the image and adds a new layer containing the desired text. Most Fstoppers readers are knowledgeable enough to handle these tasks without assistance, but using this technology can save time, allowing the user to focus on the creative aspects of image adjustment rather than the technical.
Other uses of this technology are detailed on Adobe’s blog. One noteworthy implementation appears in the video editing platform Premiere Pro, where the technology can be used to peruse video clips to locate clips that contain specific content. If a user has filmed 50 clips, agentic AI can locate only clips containing dogs, sunsets, or any other visual element. The technology can distinguish between clips that were shot using only wide angle focal lengths or clips that contain camera zoom movements. This usage, where the technology is handling a task that is mundane rather than creative, may appeal to users who are wary of AI influencing the creative process of making art.
John Ricard wrote:
"AI does not create art from scratch. Instead, the technology allows creators to use everyday language to instruct software to solve problems that might otherwise require a mastery of the program’s tools and features."
That sounds perfect for me! Why? Because I want to be able to make a lot of complex manipulations to my images, to change them from what was really there into what I wish had been there. But I don't want to have to learn how to use software because learning such things requires dozens of hours of focus and concentration that I just don't have to give. Just thinking of what a photo should look like - just imagining it in my mind's eye - and then being able to make that happen, without having to learn complex new skills, would be awesome!
I think all of the technology improvements over the past few years have moved us towards the direction of needing to learn less about how the technology. When my daughter was born 20 years ago, I used to encourage my wife to take photos of her. She hardly ever did. She wasn't going to use a professional camera to do this and all of the point and shoot cameras were super complicated with tons of uncessary buttons and features and she never liked using any of them. Today, she shoots more everyday photos than I do because she can do it on her iPhone which simplies the interface to just a couople of buttons, with virtually no learning curve. I think we will see more and more of this type of improvement where we can spend less time learning the software and more time actually using it.