AI that doesn’t steal: Inside Adobe’s playbook for ethical creativity

Generative AI has integrated into our lives much earlier than expected. From daily office tasks to comprehensive marketing campaigns are being executed with the help of AI today. As brands and marketers leverage platforms such as OpenAI’s DALL-E and Midjourney for their campaigns, big tech companies are looking to alter this landscape.  

Companies such as Meta, Google, and now Adobe have introduced a range of creative generative AI tools to enhance their offerings. During the recent Adobe Summit, Prativa Mohapatra, vice president and managing director of Adobe India, provided an extensive overview of the company's evolution. 

She extensively broke down Adobe’s AI strategy—a playbook grounded in both technology and a commitment to responsibility and authenticity.

The four-layered approach 

When asked about what distinguishes Adobe's Generative AI tools from those of Meta and Google, especially for creators, she emphasised Adobe's utilisation of first-party data.

"Every AI is developed using data that informs the model. Our model is trained on Adobe Stock—images and materials for which we hold the rights. This is our unique differentiator and a key focus going forward."

She also pointed out that, during a period when copyright issues in AI present complexities for numerous platforms, marketers utilising Adobe’s products can be assured that they will not face these challenges. 

Mohapatra said that for Adobe, artificial intelligence is not merely a buzzword or an additional feature; rather, it is a fundamental component of its three primary product clouds: Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, and Experience Cloud.

“Any AI is all about models, but the bottom of any AI is data,” Mohapatra stressed. She said every AI initiative at Adobe begins with a key question: Where is your data coming from?

She explained that Adobe’s products utilise only data that is either internally owned or publicly cleared for use, thereby ensuring no copyright violations or unauthorised usage, a common pitfall in today’s generative AI ecosystem.

“So tomorrow, if somebody uses our data models, they will not be hauled up for IP violation,” she pointed out, alluding to the growing scrutiny of AI-generated content.

As generative AI tools proliferate, concerns over deepfakes, fake news, and unauthenticated images have grown. Adobe has also taken a proactive stance through its’ Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI)’—an industry-standard approach to content provenance.

“It’s like the watermark on a medicine bottle,” Mohapatra explained. “We are doing the same with content. Every AI-generated image can have metadata embedded—who created it, when, and how.”

This initiative helps in tracking the digital life of an image, ensuring authenticity and traceability—an essential safeguard in the age of misinformation.  

Proprietary and partner models

Adobe has built its foundation model, known as Firefly, which powers generative tools in its Creative Cloud suite. 

According to Mohapatra, Firefly assists creative professionals in enhancing their output without sacrificing quality, from auto-generating artwork based on prompts such as “Rainy day in Mumbai” to mass-producing campaign creatives for events like cricket tournaments.

Yet, Adobe is not rigid about exclusivity. She added that, depending on the use case, Adobe’s platforms can also integrate OpenAI models and others in a plug-and-play format. According to Mohapatra, Adobe’s AI capabilities are infused across the board in their various products at different levels and capabilities.

A few examples are: 

Acrobat AI Assistant: A standout example in Document Cloud, this feature helps users summarise lengthy PDFs, extract insights, and even answer context-specific questions like identifying all indemnification clauses in a legal contract. It’s already proving useful for students, professionals, and legal teams alike.

Firefly in Creative Cloud: Firefly lets designers rapidly create multiple visual variations based on text prompts. Instead of hours of photo shoots or manual edits, creators can now scale production with AI-driven precision.

AI in Experience Cloud: Adobe’s AI engine also personalises customer journeys across touchpoints, ensuring that the same campaign delivers different messages to a new user, an existing customer, or a dormant one.

Adobe in India

Speaking about the brand’s growth in India, Mohapatra noted that India is pivotal to Adobe’s global innovation initiatives, highlighting the brand’s growth in the region. 

India, with more than 8,500 employees out of Adobe's total global workforce of 30,000, stands as the second-largest hub for Adobe and is the fastest-growing market in the Asia-Pacific region.

She further added that the last quarter has been particularly great for the company. She adds that Adobe counts almost every major Indian airline, bank, automaker, and media house as its customers—including IndiGo, Air India, HDFC, ICICI, Maruti, Hero, and Bennett Coleman.

“Almost every major brand or product you see here is using some part of our solutions,” said Mohapatra, adding that India is also one of the most vibrant markets in terms of customer stories and experimentation.