Adobe launches foundry service to build custom-generated AI models for enterprises

Creative design giant Adobe is enhancing its offerings for businesses to include custom-generated AI models.

Adobe on Monday announced Adobe AI Foundry, a new service that allows companies to collaborate with the company to build custom-generated AI models trained on their branding and intellectual property.

Foundry’s custom models can generate text, images, videos, and other media such as 3D scenes, and are built on Adobe’s Firefly family of AI models. These Firefly models will be launched in 2023 and are fully trained on licensed data. Adobe’s Foundry service then uses the intellectual property to fine-tune these models for each customer.

Foundry services are priced based on usage, not per seat like many of Adobe’s other products.

Hannah Elsakr, Adobe’s vice president of generative AI new business, told TechCrunch that the Foundry service is a natural extension of the company’s enterprise AI offering, and that customers are looking for more customization.

“This improves a lot of the capabilities we already had,” El-Sakr said. “Companies have asked us to advise them on this, to collaborate with them, to partner with them, and to be their partner of choice in creative marketing AI.”

Since Adobe released Firefly models in 2023, enterprises have created over 25 billion assets using Firefly models.

Elsakr said these custom models will help brands better sustain their advertising campaigns. Customers can create an ad campaign for a product once and use custom Adobe models to generate the same ad in different seasons, languages, or formats.

“It’s very personalized,” Elsakr said. “We have been talking about personalized commerce for a long time, and generative AI and Firefly allow us to put brands into the hands of consumers in a way that aligns with their brands.”

Despite the capabilities of the new tools, Esakul said Adobe is in no way trying to replace human creatives, just giving them an improved version of the tools they were already using to create content.

“Our stance is that humanity is at the heart of creativity and cannot be replaced,” El-Sakr said. “For decades, we’ve been in the business of delivering creative tools that enhance stories, convey storytelling, and enhance the ability to imagine and execute creative visions. Firefly and Foundry are just the next evolution in providing tools in the toolkit that enhance storytelling.”