As it rides into the AI age, Adobe is making adjustments to its pricing and packaging to optimize profits. How much will Adobe’s customers be willing to pay for advanced features, and how will they pay for it? All at once or as needed? Adobe’s product packaging looks like a market test.

Adobe celebrated their Spring Max conference in London, and as usual for their big conferences, they unveiled a long list of updates and new features for their products. There was a little something for everyone, but the focus was on AI and Web apps.

Adobe has long invested in AI, nee Sensei, for its in-house development, for analytics in-house, and for customer apps, and not-at-all least to enhance the abilities of its creation and editing tools. This year at its Max Conference in London and its Summit conference in Las Vegas, Adobe put the spotlight on Firefly for generative content embedded in its apps and also as a stand-alone tool. The company’s evolving creative content generator Express also got plenty of stage time at Max and at the Summit conferences where Adobe focuses on its enterprise customers through its Digital Experience products. Adobe has built the Digital Experience to enable its customers to integrate the content created for marketing with analytic tools to see what works and to be able to communicate to their clients. It’s an edge few other companies can claim. Adobe sees a role for Express in the enterprise to enable the employees on the front lines to generate their own marketing content with built-in guardrails so that work stays on-brand.

For this catch-up view of Adobe, we’ll mostly concentrate on the consumer and pro content creation products.

New features

Firefly and Express seemed to be the major focal points for the latest round of content creation updates. Adobe has expanded the possibilities for Firefly content creation by partnering with Google Cloud and OpenAI. The company has also updated its Image Model 4 and Firefly Image Model 4 Ultra for improved speed and realism. The Firefly Video Model is now widely available. New features for video include tools to generate B-roll content and make quick clips. They’ve also introduced Firefly Boards, which let users put AI to work creating mood boards and concept ideas and collaborate with teammates.

In addition to the expected, such as improved tools and increased speed, updates to the core Creative Cloud apps look like this:

• New Firefly features in Photoshop include Composition Reference in Text to Image so users can specify the composition they want by providing a reference image. New Select Details lets users select specific aspects of the image they’re working on such as hair, facial features, or clothing. Adjust Colors simplifies edits to colors in an image. And, a new Actions Panel, still in beta, offers workflow suggestions.
• Adobe’s Express app has been rapidly growing in importance as the company recognizes that it’s a swell gateway drug to Adobe’s portfolio and an attractive creative tool for workers in the enterprise who are increasingly called upon to make content to feed the social maw. New upgrades beef up Express’ video capabilities, new tool for animation, and brand management. New features include: Clip Maker for social media, Dynamic Animation for still images, Enhance Speech sound tools, Generate Video using text and image prompts to create B-roll or background footage, and Generate Similar to create variations of a reference image.
• More AI has made its way into Illustrator thanks to Firefly. New features include Generative Shape Fill and Text to Pattern, which speed up the design process and add power to the original content from users. Adobe says it has added speed with interface improvements.
• Firefly in InDesign adds image generation and generative fill. Also, PDFs can be converted into InDesign documents. Math Expressions empower creators to place complex mathematical notations directly in layouts.
• Lightroom gets new selection tools like those in Photoshop to select specific areas of an image such as sky, water, plants, etc. They come in the new Select Landscape tool in Lightroom Classic. Quick Actions have new upgrades enabling easier retouching for group photos.
• New features in Premiere Pro include tool speedups in generating, editing, and searching footage. The new Firefly-powered Generative Extend is now available and supports 4K and vertical video. New tools for searching are included with Media Intelligence, and Caption Translation localizes captions in 27 languages.
• And, in a depressing sign of the times, Adobe Fresco upgrades include a new “created without generative AI tag.” Creatives may need such a tag when they want to use their work in social media and protect their work.

Reality check

After a couple of weeks celebrating, the company lowered the boom. In its introduction of new changes, the company said in its announcement: “Creative Cloud plans for subscribers in North America (United States, Canada, and Mexico) are changing to give users the flexibility to select the plan that best fits their needs.” For users in North America not on corporate plans, this is not good news. Most users are going to see prices go up, or if they choose less-expensive subscription options, they’ll have limited access to some apps.

Frankly, the changes are bewildering. The all-apps price has risen to $70 per month and is over $100 for users on month-to-month basis. Those users get 4000 credits for Firefly, which is probably more than most people need. If users decide those prices are too rich, they can go to the $55 per month option, but their credits drop to a restrictive 25 credits per month. They’ll lose access to premium mobile apps including Photoshop on iPad. The changes will go into effect on June 17, and Adobe is encouraging uses to call their reps and make a deal.

Post-June 17 plans and pricing

For those willing to scale up to the new Creative Cloud for individuals and Creative Cloud Pro for students and teachers plans, according to Adobe’s published information, subscribers will get new benefits such as:

• Unlimited access to standard image and vector generation features including Generative Fill in Photoshop.
• Additional generative credits for premium video and audio generation features including Image to Video, Translate Video, and Translate Audio in Adobe Firefly, and Generative Extend in Premiere Pro.
• Ability to create multiple boards in Firefly Boards (beta), the new concepting and mood-boarding tool in Adobe Firefly.
• The choice to use non-Adobe generative AI models directly in Adobe Firefly, like OpenAI GPT image generation, Google Imagen and Veo, and Flux. 

So, honestly, if you can use these features, the price increase might be relatively modest, but many users are going to question how much they actually use all the tools they’re given. For instance, photographers and filmmakers are likely to think it makes sense to drop the complete packages in favor of the single-use bundles. They can use the money they save to buy access as they need it.

The lower-priced option will be called Creative Cloud Standard. It will include the 20-plus desktop apps and services but as mentioned, with fewer included credits, users will be charged more for their use of generative AI features. Creative Cloud All Apps will now be known as Creative Cloud Pro.

What do we think? Cue the customers with pitchforks?

Sure, but the company has a pretty good idea about who will actually quit, who will slim down their subscriptions, and who will remain, and through it all, the company courts corporate customers over individuals. Adobe has long focused on building a powerful interrelated system of products for corporate customers that will protect them during the ebbs and flows of consumer enthusiasm.

Fair enough, but this time out, the company seems a bit mean-spirited in the way it has yanked access to the mobile products, cut back on credits for Firefly, and slimmed down the included features for standard Express or Firefly. It doesn’t seem like the broad base of customers haven’t had a chance to play with AI and generative content.

For its part, Adobe has a core problem. When it comes to artists, it pretty much has the market all wrapped up. So, when the executive team gets in front of investors, those people want to know how Adobe intends to raise its revenue. It has already expanded into the enterprise with data analytics through its Experience Cloud. At this point in Adobe’s history, Experience Cloud subscription revenue is growing at about 13% CAGR. Growth for Adobe Creative Cloud is at about 15% CAGR. Both figures are admirable and stable. Adobe is banking on AI to further fuel growth. The company explained the potential for AI in their Adobe 2025 AI and Digital Trends Report.

Since Adobe is testing out these changes in North America first, it might tinker with these changes a bit. Also, it may be that customers won’t really value AI-based advances until they see what it’s like without them. That’s kind of a rough way to treat customers, but Adobe clearly feels it has the advantage.

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