Adobe has spent years building agentic AI. At Adobe MAX in Miami, the company showed how far that work has come. Its Creative Agent now takes plain-text direction across Firefly and Creative Cloud apps, including Photoshop and Premiere.
The agent is built for multi-step jobs. It works alongside expanded AI Assistants, which are in beta across Adobe’s applications. Adobe’s stated goal is to hand off repetitive, tedious or less creative tasks, such as organizing files, generating masks and swapping one color for another.
The creative decisions stay with the person. Why a specific object needs selecting, and which local edits will improve it, are still artistic calls. Adobe frames the agent as the system that carries out those calls.
If the agent’s masking and recoloring have you thinking about surreal composites, Digital artist CriS Cian’s cosmic photo manipulations shows how far hand-built compositing can go.
Adobe says creators have already used the Creative Agent for batch retouching portraits and turning product shots into short social videos. The agent was introduced earlier this year. “Creators remain in the director’s chair, guiding the work and making creative decisions as their projects evolve,” Adobe said in its MAX announcement.
Adobe’s position is that it builds the agents and users decide when and how to deploy them. That design choice shapes how the company talks about control.
Anil Chakravarthy, Adobe’s president and incoming chief executive officer, framed the launch around access. “We’re powering a new era of creativity where creators and creative professionals at every experience level have the tools, models and agents they need,” he said. He added that demand for content is growing across every format and channel.
Always-on agents and cross-app work
Adobe’s Firefly-powered agents can run in the background and handle tasks as needed. One example Adobe gave is turning a single image into deliverables across several formats. The Creative Agent does this with Generative Recompose, a new Photoshop tool.
The agent also works with other new tools. These include Relight and Generative Restyle in Photoshop, and Generative Remove, currently in beta, in Premiere.
Not every user wants Adobe’s agent. Adobe previewed local Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration, an open standard that lets outside agents connect to software. Through it, creative pros can direct a third-party agent to make changes inside Photoshop, Premiere and other Creative Cloud apps.
AI Assistants powered by the Creative Agent are in beta across Adobe’s flagship desktop apps. Photoshop has its own beta version of the assistant. Adobe’s local MCP integrations enter private beta early next year.
Adobe also says the Creative Agent now works in Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects and Frame.io, alongside Premiere. The company describes it as orchestrating multi-step work so professionals can delegate tasks and keep control of the result.
Premiere Pro takes on the grunt work
Ian Dean, editor of digital arts and 3D at Creative Bloq, saw a demo before MAX. He watched the agent apply effects across every clip in a sequence, track masked subjects through frames, and adjust color and exposure across an entire sequence at once.
Dean argues that the pitch for agentic AI in video editing is simple. It replaces repetitive jobs that most editors would happily hand off. He also asked who used to get those jobs and whether those roles remain viable, a question he left open.
The Generative Media Tool lets editors create video, sound effects, soundscapes and music inside the timeline. An editor selects a range, describes the need and adds the result as an editable clip. Dean called the demo impressive.
Adobe is also bringing supported third-party models into Premiere, including Kling and Seedance 2.5. Dean noted that these models sit in greyer territory than Adobe Firefly. The new Generative Remove tool, in beta, deletes unwanted objects from a shot and fills the gap with detail. It can even remove the shadows that belonged to the removed object.
Color Mode and audio cleanup
Color Mode is a dedicated grading workspace. It reorganizes the interface around color work. Editable Style Presets apply one look across a whole sequence, and editors can open them and adjust individual elements. Dean compared them to traditional Looks, with more control.
Editors can also grade groups of clips at once. That makes it faster to fix mismatches between shots. New on-screen HUDs show feedback as adjustments change, so the footage stays in focus.
Adobe is expanding its AI audio tools as well. Enhance Audio, Separate Crosstalk and Separate Sound Source clean up dialogue and split elements in a mix.
Mobile editing and music licensing
Premiere Mobile is getting the Creative Agent in private beta. It can turn raw footage into an editable first cut and accept changes written in natural language. Adobe says the creator stays in control throughout.
Adobe is adding hundreds of thousands of licensed music tracks from Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to Premiere Mobile on iPhone. Android support is coming soon. The licenses cover personal, non-commercial videos. Commercial projects can use Adobe Stock Audio instead.
Premiere also appears in Adobe’s local MCP preview. Third-party agents can work with native Premiere project files alongside Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects. Sequences and bins stay editable, so an editor can step in at any point.
Adobe’s message is that people bring the vision and judgement, while its tools and agents carry out more of the work. The hardest creative decisions concern what the work should say and how it should make people feel. An agent can handle execution, but the editor still decides whether the result fits the audience and the moment.
Where AI assistance crosses a line is also being debated in contests, as seen when Nikon Disqualifies Winning Video Over Generative AI raised similar questions about authorship.
Dean put the open question plainly. The real test is how much of the creative process editors are willing to hand over.
Via petapixel.com
Frequently asked questions
What tasks is Adobe’s Creative Agent designed to handle?
Adobe’s Creative Agent is built for multi-step jobs and takes plain-text direction across Firefly and Creative Cloud apps. Adobe’s stated goal is to hand off repetitive, tedious or less creative tasks, such as organizing files, generating masks and swapping one color for another. Creative decisions remain with the person using it.
Can third-party AI agents work inside Adobe’s creative apps?
Yes, Adobe previewed local Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration, an open standard that lets outside agents connect to software. Through it, creative professionals can direct a third-party agent to make changes inside Photoshop, Premiere and other Creative Cloud apps. Adobe’s local MCP integrations enter private beta early next year.
Which Adobe apps work with the Creative Agent?
The Creative Agent works in Premiere, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects and Frame.io. AI Assistants powered by the Creative Agent are in beta across Adobe’s flagship desktop apps, and Photoshop has its own beta version of the assistant.
What does Generative Remove do in Premiere?
Generative Remove is a tool in beta that deletes unwanted objects from a shot and fills the gap with detail. It can also remove the shadows that belonged to the removed object.
More in
Technology
All Technology
More like this
Inside Caira: The First Mirrorless Camera with Built-In Generative AI Video Editing
Four underrated web tools every video creator should know
4 Best Royalty Free Music Sites of 2021
Adobe Rebuilds Firefly Around a Creative Agent, Graph and Builder Betas
