Adobe has reimagined PDFs by integrating the generative AI power of Firefly into Acrobat. It now allows users rich image editing capability without ever leaving the app.
The emergence of AI tools is redefining the way we consume information driving huge gains in productivity and efficiency in the workplace, classroom and everyday life.
According to a Goldman Sachs report, AI technology could boost global (GDP) by around 7 per cent and productivity by 1.5 percentage points over a 10-year period, while an MIT study found it boosts performance of skilled workers by as much as 40 per cent.
Most Gen Z and millennials think AI will make their lives easier, with 75 per cent saying they would use it for homework and 89 per cent indicating they would AI tools to learn something new, according to a YPulse report released in May. Another study by the Wharton Family Foundation found most students think generative AI can help them become better students (68 per cent) and help them learn faster (75 per cent).
Consumers across Australia and New Zealand are also optimistic about the benefits of generative AI in their everyday lives with 66 percent saying generative AI will make it easier to find the information according to the latest Adobe Future of Trust Study. Additionally, 55 per cent see generative AI enabling them to be productive and accomplish more.
Levelling the playing field
Adobe has been using AI technology for years to improve productivity across its suite of software, particularly for creatives, who are seeing AI improving speed, quality and increased output.
But it’s not just creatives that are benefitting. Recently, Adobe stepped it up another level by introducing generative AI technology to solve one of the great productivity challenges of its widely used Acrobat app: creating and editing images in PDFs.
The new feature enables users to create and edit images in the 3 trillion PDFs currently in circulation by using text prompts.
“From Edit and Share to Protect and Export, Adobe has consistently innovated PDF, transforming it from a static page into a collaborative workspace,” Adobe Document Cloud Senior VP Abhigyan Modi said.
“With generative AI we can advance the category again with image creation and insights across a new range of document types, empowering every customer with a deeper understanding and ability to transform information into compelling content – with the ease and speed of a simple prompt.”
Adobe launched Firefly in 2023 but has more than a decade of AI innovation in its suite of design products such as Neural Filters in Photoshop, Content Aware Fill in After Effects, Attribution AI in Adobe Experience Platform and Liquid Mode in Acrobat.
The new Acrobat features include tools like the Firefly-powered Generative Fill, Remove Background, Erase and Crop to add, remove and revitalise content from images in the document. This includes erasing unwanted objects in an image.
Acrobat users can generate new images by using Adobe’s Firefly Image 3 Model (see video below). For example, by simply typing a few words, such as ‘lion in wilderness’, Firefly uses generative AI tech to produce a range of stunning image options.
These tools can help marketers quickly and easily create stunning PDF assets and promotional material or sales teams polish up text heavy business plans, all within a few minutes inside the same app.
Driving productivity
Acrobat AI Assistant can generate intelligent citations to help users ask questions and quickly verify the source of the answers from a pool of PDFs and other document types, including Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint, text files and other formats.
Adobe has clarified it would add Content Credentials to AI-generated or edited content so that it can be easily identified.
For example, a marketer can easily research ways to reach Gen Z customers from the information across a group of PDF, Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint documents by dragging and dropping the documents into Acrobat AI Assistant.
Acrobat AI Assistant generates suggested questions like: Give an overview of the key themes presented in these documents. Or the marketer can also ask their own questions like: “What are the social media habits of Gen Z?”
Another feature provides enhanced meeting transcript summaries for virtual meetings (see below).
Building trust in AI
Another hot topic in the creatives and media industry is whether generative AI tech breaches data privacy laws when training its AI models.
Adobe said that protecting customer data has been an important consideration in developing its AI model and that Firefly and Acrobat AI Assistant are developed in line with Adobe’s AI Ethics principles of accountability, responsibility and transparency.
Adobe Firefly is trained on licensed content, including moderated Adobe Stock content and public domain images where the copyright has expired and is designed to be commercially safe.
To provide transparency around the use of generative AI in the creative process, content credentials are automatically attached to digital content created or edited with Firefly-powered features in Adobe Acrobat. This ensures that digital ‘nutrition labels’ are built into the ecosystem, keeping users safe from unwittingly breaching copyright laws.
Aside from ensuring its own data and privacy house is in order, Adobe said it only works with best-in-class third-party LLMs that address a range of customer use cases.
Adobe prohibits third-party LLMs from manually reviewing or training on Adobe customer data, and contractually requires them to meet its own confidentiality and security protocols.
Adobe Reader or paid Acrobat customers can purchase an AI Assistant add-on subscription for A$6.99 per month until 4 September 2024.
For more information please visit: Acrobat AI Assistant: Generative AI document & PDF tool (adobe.com)
