Adobe Express Enterprise is where iWork could boldly go

Apple’s deliberate approach to generative AI (genAI) means other companies have been rolling out solutions that include the quickly evolving technology — and Adobe’s pushing hard to realize its benefits. GenAI already figures in its creative products, and as of today it’s available in Adobe Express for Enterprise.

The idea is that you can use Adobe Express for Enterprise to build branded social media content and create regional marketing presentations, media briefings, internal reports and more. As it’s an enterprise product, companies can equip people across their teams with access to the powerful set of tools for automated content creation.

I can’t help but feel that genAI-driven tools like these would make excellent additions across the Apple iWork suite (Numbers, Pages, Keynote). Think how useful it would be to be able to sketch out ideas on iPhone to improve on other Apple devices, or even using a PC and iCloud.com. Introduction of powerful creative tools like these with every Mac, iPhone, or iPad makes plenty of sense, and most Apple users surely hope for something close to this at WWDC.

After all, Apple did acquire the iWork.ai domain earlier this year. But what do you get from Adobe Express today?

Adobe Express — an enterprise marketing power tool

Adobe Express has tools for AI content creation of frequently required publicity and marketing materials, including images, banners, social media posts and videos. Express also offers QR code generation, while the LLM support means it is possible to create images, templates, and other assets using word prompts. All of this runs on Adobe’s powerful Firefly model.

Adobe Express for Enterprise builds on this. For example, if you run a brand, you can apply brand kits across teams to nurture a consistent appearance. You can also share pre-created templates, and link assets created in other Adobe applications, such as Photoshop. The idea here is that the professionally designed images created by the design department can then be used on an ad hoc basis by regional offices or remote teams.

Companies including IBM Consulting, Dentsu, Red Hat and Owen Jones already use Express in their work for tasks, including ad hoc creation of branded marketing materials and fast content versioning.

The company claims to have addressed one major concern raised by enterprise users seeking to use genAI for image creation: copyright. Trained on public domain assets and images it owns, Adobe has built Firefly to be a system capable of creating commercially safe (as in copyright free) images. Imagery generated with its solution is IP indemnified.

What it means to business

In brief, Adobe Express for Enterprise aims to enable businesses to generate the sheer quantities of personalized content required for customer communications in a multiplatform, social media-connected age. Govind Balakrisnan, Adobe senior vice president, Express Product Group and Creative Cloud Services, promises it will help “fill the content gap,” while maintaining brand standards. 

That’s all interesting in its own right, of course, but it did also catch my eye that Adobe is working with Microsoft to develop Adobe Express Extension for Microsoft Copilot. The idea behind that effort is to make it possible for Microsoft 365 users to create various kinds of content from within their applications using Copilot chat.

Adobe’s willingness to work with Microsoft, itself currently riding a new wave of positive sentiment thanks to the success of what seem at least at present to be well-received breed of Copilot+ PCs, is also of interest.

Is Adobe, a company that seemed so very impressed with the introduction of Apple Silicon, also prepared to ally with Apple (or vice versa) to bring its genAI creative Firefly toolbox to iPhones, iPads, and Macs? Or will Apple hew close to its traditional path and attempt to bring LLM-powered creative tools in-house?

More importantly, will an iPhone user working in Pages soon be able to use LLM-generated templates to make their documents look even better across any device? Or will that ability remain the domain of Adobe Express, online or in the app? Either way, for anyone in business, Adobe Express Enterprise might soon become a familiar name.

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