Adobe announced new AI video innovations in Premiere Pro and motion graphics upgrades in After Effects, aimed at transforming post-production workflows and enabling more seamless storytelling. B&T spoke to Hanna Elsakr, Adobe’s vice president of GenAI new business ventures, who said the new features level the playing field for independent filmmakers and agencies to learn more.
These upgrades include new typography, materials, and 3D features that enhance motion design and visual storytelling. This follows the October 2025 announcement of Adobe Firefly Foundry, which enables businesses to create customized generative AI models specific to their brands. Adobe’s new tools are built on these proprietary models.
These unique Adobe Firefly Foundry models, trained on the entire catalog of existing IP, can be built on top of commercially secure Adobe Firefly models. This allows teams to scale content production within the brand, create new customer experiences, and extend IP.
Using Adobe’s GenAI model Firefly as an anchor, the Adobe Firefly Foundry model can support all major asset types, including images, video, audio, vectors, and 3D, accelerating content delivery for brand campaigns, performance marketing, media production workflows, and more.
But while many have opined about the transformative effects of generative AI, Elsakr believes that generative AI is simply the next tool in a long line of creative technologies, one that enhances rather than replaces human vision, but one that will have a significant impact on the business of creativity. This framework resonated with some of the world’s most IP-conscious brands. That includes Walt Disney, which is working with Adobe to build private, custom AI models tailored to its unique visual DNA.
“They don’t want their IP to go out into the unknown. At that level, corporate security, brand integrity and copyright are really important,” Elsakr said.
Elsakr said. B&T How Home Depot leveraged Adobe’s new AI capabilities. Retailers needed AI-generated images that were accurate, not just about branding, but also about product usage.
“If someone is holding a saw, they need to hold it correctly for safety. That kind of precision doesn’t exist in a generic model. But when you tailor the model to your brand, product, and rules, you can do it.”
The same logic applies whether you’re creating a $100 million theatrical release or a 42-second ad spot. Elsakr said the process is pretty much the same: ideation, creation, post-production and endless variations. AI is simply there to reduce workload and make it more seamless.
“You still need a creative brief. You come up with an idea. You get the green light. You produce. Then you go into post-production. The process is pretty much the same,” she said.
What has changed is the scale.
“We consume so much content that if we don’t feel fresh, we get tired,” she said.
Faster production, fewer gatekeepers
Economic conditions are becoming increasingly difficult for movie studios. With audiences fragmented across platforms, any release delay can result in lost revenue. Adobe’s focus on leveraging AI to simplify workflows is aimed at reducing costs and time.
“If it costs $1 million a minute to make a movie, it’s important to speed up the time to release and reduce costs,” Elsakr said.
Adobe’s AI-assisted pre-visualization is already helping directors coordinate with stakeholders faster, while post-production tools in Photoshop and Premiere Pro are saving hours of manual work, from removing extraneous backgrounds to cleaning up shots frame by frame.
But the most profound changes may be occurring on the independent side of the market.
“Some of the smaller filmmakers are saying, ‘I couldn’t get the green light before.’ Now they can make something, get it seen, and bypass a lot of traditional gatekeepers.”
The same benefits apply to indie agencies.
Creating variants that tailor content to different audiences, platforms, and formats is, in Elsakr’s opinion, one of AI’s clearest victories so far. Where brands once photographed a single asset and hoped it would resonate broadly, they can now create multiple versions in context without reshooting.
“The ROI on this is over 60%. Brands already have the data, they just don’t have enough content,” said Elsakr.
“Small agencies that aren’t representing big brands are now getting the work. Why? Because they have a unique perspective. They’re getting their work seen. These agencies are pitching materials that look like finished work. They can move faster, stay within budget, and compete on ideas rather than resources.”
“This is interesting from a ‘leveling the playing field’, or democratizing the industry,” she added.
Engage consumers with your brand story
Another area of focus for Adobe’s new AI capabilities is user-generated content and the role of brands in enabling it.
Elsakr cites a collaboration with the NFL that provided AI-powered Adobe Express templates to thousands of fans, influencers, and partners.
“Instead of shutting down the content, they said, ‘Here are the guardrails: logo here, font here, vertical video.'” Suddenly they had 2,000 brand ambassadors. ”
“The new definition of personalization is that consumers want to drive the brand story,” El-Sakr said, quoting former Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey.
“That’s the beauty of AI. I think it will enable new experiences that weren’t possible before.”
Trust and AI
For Elsakr, conversations always begin and end with trust.
Adobe has decades of relationships with studios and agencies. “If you’ve been in the industry for 40 years and trusted us to edit Academy Award-winning films, we feel like they can trust us with the use of AI,” she said.
Trust is also inherently tied to Adobe’s AI standards. “Clean pixels means clean pixels out. That’s important for businesses, brands, and creators.”
This is a phrase Elsakr repeats often, and it powers Adobe’s Firefly family of generative AI models that are trained only on licensed data. For Adobe, responsible AI is more than just legal protection; it’s part of our approach to creativity.
“Adobe is centered around human creators and visionaries. That’s always been the case.”
She is quick to point out that when Photoshop first came out, people truly believed it would destroy the technology. “Now I use ‘Photoshop’ as a verb.”
Adobe’s foray into AI suggests that major companies are driving small but transformative changes, and that “AI” may soon become a verb, much like Photoshop. There could be even more room for big ideas as indie agencies and filmmakers look to communicate their creative visions to audiences.
In both film and advertising, Adobe positions itself as a stable player in a rapidly changing industry.
